Iseq 3,299 (-253.9) at 5.30 pm:It was another hellish day on the Irish market today, as the Iseq fell by 253.8 points, or 7.1 per cent, to finish the day at 3,299, as bad news from the banking sector dragged the index down.
As one broker described it, a "tsunami of bad news" keeps on coming, and the main fear in the markets was the outlook for the UK banking sector, with Royal Bank of Scotland losing 40 per cent of its value. Moreover, despite presenting at a Merrill Lynch Banking Conference, investors failed to react positively to the stories being sold by the Irish banks.
Irish banks also fell on the news that Dankse Bank, the Danish parent company of National Irish Bank (NIB), would incur a write-down for the third quarter due, in part, to commercial property loans at NIB.
Anglo Irish Bank had the honour of being the worst performer on the Irish market, as it lost €1.31 or 32.7 per cent of its value to close down at €2.68.
Irish Life & Permanent also had another torrid day as it saw its share price decline by €1.20 or 24 per cent, to finish the day at €3.80.
Both Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland finished the day in negative territory, with AIB dropping 85 cent or 13.3 per cent to close at €5.55 and BOI losing 71 cent, or 17.8 per cent, to finish at €3.29.
Outside of financials, trading was relatively quiet, although a major sell-off in Waterford Wedgewood saw trading volumes in the share reach 55 million.
On the positive side, Elan added 39 cent or 5.7 per cent to its share price to climb to €7.19, while construction stocks CRH and Kingspan also out-performed. CRH marginally increased its share price by 4 cent, or 0.3 per cent, to reach €15.45, while Kinsgpan added 6 cent to its share price, or 1 per cent, to finish the day at €6.16.
Following Icelandic food group Bakkavor's sale of its stake in the food group, Greencore started the day up 2 per cent, but remained static at €1.42 by close.
In the US, there was some good news when the Federal Reserve announced it would create a special fund to purchase US commercial paper, in order to revive this key source of funding for corporations. However, by 11.30 am, the S&P 500 had given up 7.74 points, or 0.72 per cent, to fall back to 1,049.15, while the Dow Jones fell by 68.1 points, or 0.68 points, to remain below the 10,000 psychological barrier at 9,887.40.
In the UK, banks received a hammering over fears for their future, with Royal Bank of Scotland hitting a 15-year closing low. However, overall the FTSE 100 closed up 16 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 4,605.2.
Across Europe, banks under-performed but overall markets were mixed, with Germany's DAX index down by 1.1 per cent, and France's CAC 40 up by 0.4 per cent.
