There is great concern among the investors and analysts who talk about a second financial crisis like the one of 2008, after Chinese stock markets shutting down for a second time within a week.

About 2.5 trillion dollars are estimated to have been lost in 2016 (until yesterday) from global equity markets without counting the current fall.

China’s stock markets didn’t last one hour of trading on Thursday, as Forbes reports. Both Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges hit their circuit breakers and shut down at 10:30.

This was the second time this week. On the first day of the year Shanghai shares fall over 7%, triggering a circuit breaker mechanism which went into effect this year, while Chinese mainland equities are now down over 13% in four days.

European shares are also affected with pan-European index falling by more than 3%.

Equity prices were falling on Thursday on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), with the basic share price index down 4.15%, standing at 591.99 points at 11.00 am and turnover at 20.48 million euros.

The FTSE/ASE Large Cap index for blue chip and heavily traded stocks fell by 4.21% and the FTSE/ASE Mid Cap index was down 2.70%.

All individual sector indices recorded a fall with the heaviest losses in Banks (-5.39 percent), Health (-4.62 percent) and in Utilities (-4.10 percent).

Of the stocks traded, 4 went up, 42 went down and 7 remained unchanged.