AIB plunged on the Dublin market today as investors were rattled by the announcement that the beleaguered bank had racked up a €2 billion pre-tax loss in the first half of the year.
Although AIB's interim results were broadly in line with expectations and contained no great surprises, the stock sank 13 per cent at one point during today's session. However after a weak start, the stock found its feet and traded up in line with markets generally. It closed about 5.5 per cent off, or 5.5 cent, at just over 93 cent.
Bank of Ireland was "woken up" by AIB's news, one Dublin broker said, and saw decent volume. However it came off a fairly decent run to close down 2.3 per cent, or two cent, at 84.5 cent.
Meanwhile building materials group CRH weakened considerably in early trade as the impact of disappointing updates from two US peers filtered through. Both Martin Marietta and Vulcan Materials reported weaker-than-expected second quarter results on Tuesday, and saw their share prices soften by six and nine per cent respectively in US markets that evening.
As a result CRH found itself under pressure when the Dublin market opened this morning, and it tumbled from €16.31 to below €15.84. However it staged an impressive recovery in later trade and closed in the black at €16.33.
Budget airline Ryanair pushed ahead by more than 1 per cent, or five cent, to €3.95 after announcing that its traffic numbers hit record levels in July. Rival airline Aer Lingus also put in a decent showing, finishing up more than 2 per cent at 97 cent.
Cider manufacturer C&C, which holds its agm tomorrow, recovered from a weak start to close more or less flat at just under €3.28.
The Iseq was also little changed, adding just 1.5 points to 2,963.34.
Around Europe, UK's FTSE 100 index was down 1 per cent, Germany's DAX index down 0.1 per cent, and France's CAC 40 down 0.4 per cent.
Additional reporting - Reuters