A South African pundit who warned last month that world stock markets would collapse in October, said yesterday that the current global rout tallied closely with his predictions and forecast more gloom. Mr Fred Crooks, armed with a complex theory mixing ancient mathematics, weather patterns and the turns of the ocean tide, appeared on South African television in September announcing that share markets would plunge on October 17th.

Although his ideas were dismissed by analysts, small South African stock investors - who were already jittery in the days ahead of the 10th anniversary of the last Wall Street crash - dumped shares, causing falls on the Johannesburg market.

"It fits in almost perfectly. I did, however, expect a bigger fall on (October) 17th, but it was sufficient to destabilise the market," Mr Crooks said.

Mr Crooks targeted market movements using a system that relies heavily on the Fibonacci mathematical sequence - a numbers series named after a 13th century mathematician and used by technical analysts to impose a rationale on otherwise random financial market action.

In what is seen as the worst collapse since the 1987 crash, world stock markets have fallen this week on the back of a slump in Hong Kong shares. Mr Crooks said his targeting pointed to further upheavals on the Dow Jones index until the end of next week.

"I am expecting a horrific drop into next Friday. This is certainly not the end of the socalled crash," he said, adding that the current punishment of shares heralded the start of a period of depression that would carry on into the next century.

"I am looking at a bear market going into 2001/2002 . . . and I see the Dow down by 10 per cent of its value from where it peaked at 8,300," he said.

Mr Crooks' predictive record has improved. Four years ago, the former architectural engineer wrongly forecast a collapse for 1993. In that year world markets climbed healthily and South Africa basked in the glow of a rocketing gold price.