Fed's boost to Iseq proves short-lived

Market Report:The Irish Stock Exchange's graph showing yesterday's gains and losses on the Iseq zig-zags erratically, illustrating the wild volatility of the day's trading.

After a late rally on Wall Street on Thursday evening, the market opened well. But the good start quickly deteriorated into negative territory. By lunchtime things were going very badly. Then the US Federal Reserve came to the rescue of global stock markets, and the Iseq joined in, swinging from losses of 2.5 per cent to gains of 2.5 per cent in the space of 35 minutes, as investors took whatever price they could get and ran. But the Fed's boost to the Iseq was short-lived, and unlike the impressive gains on the FTSE 100, the Iseq index only managed to recover 49 of the 319 points it lost on Thursday.

The Iseq finished up just over half-a-per cent. This is now the third equity sell-off in just over a year, and the decline in the market since early June has been the most severe weakening since 2001-2002, according to a note from Davy economist Robbie Kelleher. There was high volume in Anglo Irish Bank, with 15 million shares changing hands. It finished up 2.6 per cent at €13.80.

AIB made gains of 3.6 per cent on volume of seven million and closed at €18.65, while Bank of Ireland clawed back just over 1 per cent of its 5.5 per cent loss on Thursday, finishing the week at €13.09. Elsewhere, 12 million shares in Ryanair changed hands, and it finished down 2.69 per cent at €4.92. The cancelling of a contract in the Congo hasn't helped Tullow's share price, which fell 2.49 per cent.

It was a relatively healthy day for Fyffes' spin-offs Total Produce and Blackrock, but not so great for C&C, which dropped 3 per cent, IAWS, which went down 2 per cent, and Greencore, which fell 5 per cent.