Dow rally gives stock markets spur for recovery

STOCK markets regained ground after the late recovery on Wall Street on Tuesday night and the stronger opening on the New York market yesterday.

Share prices in Dublin took back some lost ground and the ISEQ Overall Index closed up almost 12 points on 2416.47. But dealers said turnover was negligible, with few investors prepared to return to a market still liable to move downwards.

European stocks rebounded strongly as Wall Street opened sharply higher a day after experiencing frenzied transactions in its heaviest trading session on record.

Stocks in London, Frankfurt and Paris all shot up by over 1 per cent shortly after New York opened.

Some of the European markets did not manage to retain all of their gains and London, in particular, came off its best level to close up 26 points on 3,658.2.

Investors in London were encouraged by Wall Street's renewed vigour, attributed to better than expected earnings from Intel which boosted technology stocks - the sector at the heart of Tuesday's violent swings - but the mood was cautious because of New York's volatility.

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged by more than 160 points on Tuesday, then rallied to trade briefly at a 50 point gain before closing up 9.25 points at 5,358.76.

But one trader warned: "A market that can move over 200 points in the course of a day is impossible to predict.

"We're being led very much by the nose by the US so whatever it does this afternoon will determine the course of our market. I don't expect it to rally much this morning.