Stocks hit fresh lows on bailout fears

By Natsuko Waki

LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks fell to a fresh three-year low on Friday as concerns grew that Washington's $700 billion (395 billion pound) bailout package might not be enough to prevent the U.S. economy and the rest of the world from slowing down further.

U.S. House democratic leaders are optimistic the revised rescue bill to tackle the financial crisis passed by the Senate will clear the House of Representatives.

Even so, investors worry that recent data, yet to capture the full shock to the labour market and consumer confidence from September's series of bank failures and troubles, is already showing the economy is nearing recession.

Investors also chose to stay on the sidelines ahead of a closely watched U.S. jobs report due later.

"There are plenty of reasons for people not to have bets on the table ahead of the weekend," said Jeremy Batstone-Carr, head of private client research at Charles Stanley.

"The markets are going to be treacherous, we are close to two big hurdles, the last of which (the vote on the bailout) is after markets in Europe close... so it will take a tenacious investor to make an investment on a day like today."

The FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 fell 0.3 percent on the day while MSCI main world equity index .MIWD00000PUS lost 0.4 percent, hitting its weakest since July 2005.

According to Standard & Poor's, all 52 world equity markets declined in September, resulting in a $4.1 trillion loss. Since January, world equity markets have lost $10.5 trillion.