Irish stocks were hit by the meltdown in world stock markets. AIB and Kerry were among the few domestic companies to notch up significant gains.

The ISEQ index ended more than 1 per cent lower with dealers braced for further volatile trading this week as concerns about a financial crisis in Japan added to worries about the strength of the US economy.

AIB managed to add 19 cents to its share price yesterday to close at €11.30. Dealers reported a good deal of switching by investors out of Bank of Ireland into AIB in the afternoon, which helped to boost the latter's shares.

Financial stocks internationally were hit by rumours of insolvency at top Japanese banks, with most of the Irish banks weakening.

Bank of Ireland was forced to yield 17 cents ending the session below €10 at €9.83. Irish Life & Permanent was also hit, with the shares dropping by 31 cents to €12.25.

CRH took a pasting with the shares dropping by 60 cents to €17.70, putting a halt to its recent strong performance. Smurfit was just marginally weaker, dropping two cents to €1.97 despite the weaker tone.

Kerry was a strong performer gaining 14 cents to €13.40. Other food companies had mixed fortunes, with Glanbia up one cent to 58 cents while IAWS shed 18 cents to end at €7.62.

Eircom continued to track Vodafone's performance and was able to recover from earlier lows to end the day down three cents at €2.40. Other losers included Elan down 59 cents at €52.31, Galen which lost 63 cents to €13.57, Horizon which fell 25 cents to €5.50 and Irish Continental Group which shed 17 cents to €7.05.