World stock markets remained jittery today despite yesterday's decision by the US Fed to cut interest rates by three quarters of a percentage point.
The Iseq recouped earlier losses this afternoon to narrow the gap on yesterday's close to 56.60 points at 5857.88 by 15.45, the equivalent of a 0.68 per cent fall.
Ryanair clawed back some earlier losses after falling 14 cent to 2.63 per share - a fall of 5.05 per cent - while Anglo Irish Bank continued to fall and was down 36 cent or 5.22 per cent on the day's starting position.
CRH (-3.20 per cent), Datalex (-3.57 per cent) and Horizon Tech (-2.22 per cent), Ovoca Gold (-10.62 per cent) also saw significant falls.
US stocks inched higher in choppy trading as gains in financial shares including Morgan Stanley offset losses in the energy sector as oil dropped more than $4 a barrel. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 31.10 points, or 0.25 per cent, at 12,423.76. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 5.90 points, or 0.44 per cent, at 1,336.64. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 5.79 points, or 0.26 percent, at 2,274.05.
Meanwhile, European stocks trimmed their losses but remained in the red after Wall Street firm Morgan Stanley reported above-forecast earnings.
The FTSE 100 Index was down19.4 at 5586.4 at 3:45 p.m. in London, having earlier fallen as much as 1.4 per cent. The FTSE All-Share Index grew less than 0.1 per cent. Britain's third-biggest bank Barclays Plc was up 3.8 per cent to 428.5 and HSBC, the Britain's largest bank, added 1.1 per cent to 808.5 pence.
Overnight Asian stocks surged as the US interest rate cuts sent exporters higher and revived moribund financial shares.
The dollar fell in see-saw trade, a day after posting its biggest one-day gain against the yen in a decade, though remaining well above recent lows hit against other currencies such as the euro - bringing more relief to Asian exporters.
The stock rally dimmed the safe-haven appeal of gold and bonds, while oil retreated from yesterday's jump on expectations for a fall in US inventory data due later in the day.
Still, analysts warned against over-reacting to what has been a volatile week, with Asian stocks hitting their lowest since August amid investor fears of the impact of the financial crisis on the global economy.
"The problem in the US is that the banks don't have enough capital to lend and we're not really that sure whether the Fed action will fix that," said Damien Boey, equity strategist at Credit Suisse in Australia.
"What's actually needed is for the Fed to buy up those toxic or defunct assets that are going around. So at this stage, we're very sceptical about this bounce."
The MSCI's measure of Asian stocks outside Japan rose 3.3 per cent as of 6.08am in a welcome bounce for an index that is down some 20 per cent this year.
Japan's Nikkei rose 2.5 per cent, coming back after hitting its lowest since August 2005 on Monday, while shares in Australia jumped 4 per cent.
Shares in South Korea, Hong Kong and India rose more than 2 per cent each, while markets in Taiwan and Singapore advanced more than 1 per cent.
Shanghai's benchmark index gained 1.4 per cent fuelled by rumours that the government would take steps to boost the market, perhaps by cutting the stock stamp duty.