After Friday’s record one-day gains following the financial regulator’s decision to ban short-selling of financial shares, the Iseq slipped back into the red today.
Volatility continues to be a hallmark of the market as financials gave up some of the huge gains made last Friday dragging the Dublin market down.
The Iseq opened the day weak and despite a late morning rally, continued to fall steadily through the afternoon, eventually closing the day 3.88 per cent, or 160.31 points, weaker at 3,976.01.
Irish bank shares fell in line with their international counterparts as investors remained cautious about the US government’s $700 billion bailout package to take bad mortgage assets from the country’s struggling banks. The European index of bank shares was down around 4 per cent, with Irish banks following a similar trend.
Anglo Irish Bank’s share price tumbled by more than 16 per cent as it dropped back 90 cent to €4.70, while Bank of Ireland was 51 cent weaker – a fall of 9.8 per cent. AIB closed the day down more than 5 per cent as it shed 33.1 cent.
However, Irish Life & Permanent managed to buck the trend. Interest from a number of buyers in the stock saw it surge by 4.27 per cent, a gain of 26.2 cent.
A spike in oil prices hit low fares airline Ryanair, causing its share price tumble by more than 6 per cent, or 17 cent, to €2.55.
However, it was good news for Dragon Oil. It surged by nearly 30 per cent, picking up 72.4 cent to €3.29 as oil pushed back above $100 a barrel.
Better than expected results for food company Aryzta, posting pre-tax profits of €218 million for the year ending July 31 on revenues of €3.13 billion, helped its share price advance in early trading. However, it gave up these gains in the afternoon before eventually closing 10 cent weaker at €33.50
Elan put in a good day on the back of good news from phase III trials of its multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri which saw it gain 33 cent to €7.97, a rise of 4.32 per cent.
European stocks fell, erasing some of the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index's steepest one-day advance on record, as higher oil prices weighed on retailers and travel companies and overshadowed plans by the U.S. government to buy $700 billion of bank assets.
National benchmark indices dropped in 14 of the 18 western European markets. The UK’s FTSE 100 fell 1.4 per cent. France’s CAC 40 lost 2.3 per cent and Germany’s DAX slipped 1.3 per cent.