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At 4.05am GMT, the media giant's shares, listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, had fallen 66 cents to A$9.93, having dropped as low as A$9.84.

News Corp's shares have been suffering all week as the value of its investment in electronic programme guide company Gemstar continued to shrink.

Last week, Gemstar lost a patent infringement case, which wiped nearly $1.8bn (£1.18bn) from the value of News Corp's 43% holding in the company.

Last month, News Corp made Australian corporate history when it wrote down $4.15bn on its Gemstar stake ahead of a ruling.

To reflect the current market value of its investment, News Corp will now have to write down another $1.8bn following the ruling.

The impact the Gemstar ruling has had on News Corp's shares has been compounded by the news that WorldCom has disclosed accounting discrepancies amounting to $4bn.

However, analysts have mixed views as to whether News Corp will be affected more than any other company in Australia by the scandal.

The amount of the WorldCom accounting irregularity is worth around six times the size of the accounting discrepancies that bought down Enron earlier this year.

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