Buenos Aires, Oct 6 - Latin American currency, stock and bond markets disintegrated in opening trade on Monday on fears over the mushrooming global financial crisis.
Brazil's stock market halted trade for half an hour after its benchmark Bovespa index dove more than 10 percent to 40,016 points after opening. After the market renewed trade, the Bovespa index was off 10.1 percent.
Mexico's benchmark IPC stock index was off more than 5 percent at 21,833 points.
"The world has gone mad. All the bourses are nose diving, commodity prices are falling and regional currencies are also sinking," said a currency trader in Santiago, Chile, asking not to be named in line with policy.
Brazil's real currency weakened more than 5 percent and Mexico's peso was off more than 3.5 percent against the U.S. dollar.
The currencies and stock markets of Chile, Argentina and Colombia also weakened sharply.
Chile's peso fell 3.07 percent in early trade to 586.00/587.00 per dollar, compared with Friday's close at 568.00/568.30. The peso is at its lowest level since around July 2005.
Chile's blue-chip IPSA index was down 4.03 percent points at 10:04 a.m. (1404 GMT) after closing down 2.39 percent on Friday, while the all-market IGPA index was down 2.98 percent.
Argentina's peso currency shed 1.7 percent of its value on Monday in early trade, hitting levels not seen since May 2002 amid a global market slide.
The Argentine peso was changing hands at 3,225/3,23 per U.S. dollar in interbank trade, which is heavily regulated by the central bank.
Argentina's benchmark Merval index fell 4.6 percent in opening trade.
Colombia's peso fell 4.05 percent to 2,256.9 pesos to the dollar while the country's benchmark stock market index IGBC fell 2.45 percent.