Heavy selling across the board hit the Irish market for the second successive day, with the ISEQ now sitting at its lowest level for almost two years.
Dealers see little improvement in sight until international markets settle down - and that is unlikely to happen until the global economy shows signs of recovery.
There was heavy trading in a variety of leading shares - and not just those with an exposure to the United States or the aviation and tourism industries.
Bank shares were badly hit, with AIB down 74 cents on €10.26, while Bank of Ireland fell 48 cents to €8.45 on a volume of more than four million shares. Despite buying back one million shares on Wednesday at €11.70, Irish Life & Permanent fell 35 cents to €11.25.
Kingspan was another company involved in buybacks, repurchasing 250,000 shares at €2.70, down 19 cents on the day. There was heavy trading in Smurfit which fell heavily - down 12 cents to €1.91 with 5.3 million shares trading. CRH remained weak, falling another 40 cents to €14.80, while Waterford Wedgwood fell five cents to €0.60.
On the New York Stock Exchange, Elan was trading $1.44 lower by midday at $44. Fyffes stood still on €1.20 with 5.7 million shares dealt, but Dunloe Ewart continued to spiral downwards after its dreadful results and lost five cents, to €0.20.
Irish technology shares were pulverised on overseas markets - notably Datalex - which lost two-thirds of its value in both Dublin and on the Nasdaq.
Other technology stocks were marked down heavily and, by midday on Nasdaq, Iona was down another 10 per cent and Parthus 8 per cent. Riverdeep and Smartforce were little changed.
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