August was the second consecutive month in which the index declined.
It was the first time since 1952 that the index had declined for five consecutive months.
The index for the United States also declined, by 1.5 percent.
The index declined 1.9 percent for the first three weeks of October.
During the first seven months of 1990, the index declined by only 4.8 points, from 93 last January.
The index has declined about 30 percent since the beginning of this year.
Since March 10, when it reached a high of 5,048.62, the index has declined by nearly 9 percent.
The index for the mid-Atlantic region declined by 25 percent.
However, by 3.30pm the index had declined 250 points to 4280.
The index has declined 4.22 percent so far this year.