Fears of a recession saw Iseq index of Irish shares close at 5,289.11 in Dublin today, down 105.45 points or 1.95 per cent.
The index hit a new 12-month low this morning when it went down to 5,264.36 during mid-morning trading.
One Dublin trader described it as a day of “doom and gloom”. The tone of the day was set by the publication of the Economic and Social Research Institute’s quarterly report, which showed the Irish economy will contract by 0.4 per cent this year.
Although the market rallied towards the close, all the most heavily traded shares were in the red by the end of trading.
Over five million shares of Bank of Ireland were traded as it fell through the €6 mark to close at €5.90, a fall of 2.5 per cent. Almost six million Anglo Irish Bank shares changed hands in Dublin as it traded off 1.9 per cent, closing at €6.62.
Outside the big financial stocks, Ryanair was off just over 3 per cent at €2.87, while CRH finished on €17.70, a 2.5 per cent loss, as the share price weakened towards the bell.
After a 5.52 per cent gain yesterday, which saw it become the biggest company on the Irish exchange, pharmaceutical group Elan was the subject of profit taking and was down 2.1 per cent at €21.48.
Dublin was not alone in its weakness, however, with all the major European exchanges closing in negative territory. In London the FTSE 100 closed at 5651.6 down 15.60, Germany’s Dax shed 53.40 to close at 6536.1, while France’s Cac 40 was down 37.61 at 4473.8, although all were up on earlier lows.
In early trading in the US gains in financial shares saw both the Dow and S&P 500 gain ground.