Volatility rife as index falls another 3.7%

Dublin report:Another day, another 3.7 per cent knocked off the Iseq index of Irish shares, as a $10 billion quarterly loss from the US's largest bank, Citigroup - among other things - triggered a by now all-too-familiar bout of aggressive selling on European stock exchanges.

Volatility on the Dublin market was rife, with Anglo Irish Bank among the shares that bounced around. Poor figures from German lender Hypo prompted a 9 per cent drop in Anglo, with its share price dipping below the €9 mark at one stage, but it recovered somewhat in the afternoon to close the day down 4.3 per cent at €9.45.

Insurance company FBD's performance - gaining 10 cent - was "heroic", according to one dealer, given the present environment for financials.

Drinks group C&C was down around 6 per cent at one stage, but closed just a mere cent short of the previous day's closing price, at €3.88. A trading update is due from C&C tomorrow and rumours of a fresh profit warning have circulated.

There was heavy trading yesterday in builders McInerney, with 3.4 million shares changing hands. The stock, which has been the subject of recent interest from property developer Liam Carroll, fell 4.5 per cent to €1.48, but it remains one of the few that is attracting significant buyer interest. A company share buyback scheme in building materials group CRH is failing to prop up its share price as might have been expected and it dropped 4.5 per cent to close at €22.63.

It was another "inexorable" day for Smurfit Kappa, with a 5.5 per cent loss taking its price down to 9.25. Heaviest faller was Kerry, which dropped 7.3 per cent following a stockbrokers' note on Wednesday that its share price, which performed well last year, now has limited upside.