Stocks went in a tailspin again today as banking stocks tumbled after AIG posted a record loss and HSBC announced Britain’s largest ever rights issue.

Banking stocks led the FTSE decline after HSBC’s plan of a deep-discount rights issue and embattled life insurer AIG announcement of a $61.7 billion quartely net loss, the biggest in U.S. corporate history.

The sell-off fuelled by fears that the global financial crisis shows no signs of abating pushed the Dow Jones industrial average to its lowest level since April 1997 intraday,  while  the FTSE 100 ended trading at its lowest closing level in 6 years.

“This market is running very, very scared,” said Howard Wheeldon, a senior strategist at BGC Partners. “There is just no good news out there.”

Other analysts described markets as “having gone into survival mode, just like the companies”.

(FTSE 100 since 2004/Reuters Graphics)

How much further do markets have to fall before there is a light at the end of the tunnel? When would you consider buying equities again?

Fewer women than last year are reaching the top in their chosen professions, an annual survey has found.

Progress on equality is moving at a snail’s pace, the Equality and Human Rights Commission says, blaming Britain’s long-hours culture and inflexible working pactices.

At this rate it will take women 55 years to reach parity with men at senior levels in the judiciary and 73 years to draw level in the number of FTSE 100 company directors, the commission predicts.

Do you have any experience of the glass ceiling and do you agree that women’s progress at senior levels in the workplace is stalling? If so, what is needed to turn things around?