Wall Street shares are sharply higher, with the Dow Jones 1.3% up, after losing ground on Tuesday.

At the same time, European stock markets lost ground as fears persist of a China-led economic downturn.

London’s FTSE 100 closed down by 1.7% , with markets in Paris and Frankfurt finishing down by 1.4% and 1.3% respectively.

Experts expect more market volatility until the Federal Reserve meets in September to set US interest rates.

_"Until we get September out of the way, I think markets will continue to be choppy," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

“These are the sorts of swings that we last saw in 2008,”_ he added.

With the wild movements in global markets, Mr Hewson said he did not expect a rate rise out of the US next month, in part because of the central bank’s mandate to maintain financial stability.

“I think they would be absolutely bonkers to raise rates now,” he said.