B of I and Ryanair take hits on bleak day for Iseq

Iseq: 2,434.08 (–87.21) Settlement date: September 8th:CONCERNS ABOUT Europe set the tone for trading on the market yesterday with one dealer saying that what was being witnessed was not risk aversion but "fear".

Investors did not know what was going to happen to the euro and to the political leadership of the European project, and matters had entered a very critical stage, he said.

This was part of the reason for the fall in the value of Bank of Ireland shares, according to traders. Volumes were decent and the stock finished the day down 11.36 per cent, at €0.07.

Labor Day in the US muted activity on European markets but the concerns about Europe, and the US economy, fed into the poor performance of cyclical stocks.

Smurfit Kappa ended the day down 6.4 per cent, at €4.95. CRH finished the day 5.5 per cent weaker at €11.2.

Ryanair slid 4.6 per cent to close at €2.95. The fall in Ryanair’s share price came despite it publishing figures yesterday showing it had carried 8.14 million passengers in August. In July, it was the first European airline to carry eight million passengers in a single month.

Aer Lingus “only” fell by 1.86 per cent, to €0.63, reflecting the fact, traders said, that its cash situation is healthy and the view that its model is working.

Independent News Media, where the public squabbling between the board and its major shareholder, Denis O’Brien, appears set to continue, saw its share price fall by 5.73 per cent, to close at €0.29.

Fears of the euro project going pear-shaped dominated the day, but it did not put investors off fruit importer, Fyffes, which reported pre-tax profits of €17.3 million for the first six months of 2011, up 30.4 per cent on the €13.3 million for the same period a year earlier. Its share price rose 6.58 per cent, to close at €0.38.