Dublin exchange lost €61bn in grim year

THE DUBLIN stock exchange finished 2008 with a net loss of €61 billion in the value of the Irish shares at the end of a dismal year for national and international markets.

With the Iseq index closing one of its most volatile trading years at 2,343.27 on New Year's Eve (down 7.34 points on the day), more than €33.23 billion was erased from the value of financial stocks. Other shares lost €27.23 billion of their value.

Anglo Irish Bank finished the year at 17.1 cents, down 98.42 per cent for 2008. Anglo is one of three banks to be recapitalised by the Government, the others being Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks (AIB). Bank of Ireland, which finished the year at 83.4 cents, was down 91.42 per cent for the year and AIB finished at €1.73, down 88.16 per cent for 2008.

Irish Life Permanent, which finished at €1.57, lost 85.51 per cent of its value in the year.

Among other Iseq heavyweights, building materials firm CRH closed the year at €17.85, down 22.86 per cent for 2008.

Losses on the Irish market mirrored sharp declines on the global scene. US stocks incurred their greatest losses since the Great Depression, as financial shares collapsed, energy and metal producers tumbled and the world's biggest economy suffered a yearlong recession.

The Standard Poor's 500 decreased 38.5 per cent, the greatest decline since the 38.6 per cent plunge in 1937. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 34 per cent in the steepest drop since 1931.

London's leading stocks endured their worst annual falls in at least 24 years while, in Europe and Asia, some markets ended the year by notching up their worst performances since records began. The FTSE 100 lost 30.9 per cent in 2008, finishing the year at 4,434.17.

This was the blue-chip index's worst annual fall since it was created in 1984 and substantially more than its previous biggest yearly loss of 24.5 per cent in 2002. The FTSE All Share index fell 32.8 per cent, its worst annual fall since losing 55.3 per cent in 1974.

While the global economic slowdown weighed on stocks in 2008, US government bonds posted their best year since 1995 amid speculation the recession will extend into the first half of 2009.

The dollar completed its biggest annual decline against the yen in more than two decades, while the euro had its best year against the British pound since its 1999 debut.