MARKET REPORT:WEAK SENTIMENT in financial stocks was again a big feature of the day as concerns over the health of US mortgage companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae continue to weigh on banks throughout Europe.
Irish banking stocks fell by around 1.9 per cent, more or less in line with Europe.
That helped to make it another dismal day for the Dublin market, which fell by 2.18 per cent as it shed 93.74 points to 4,203.63.
Among the financials, Irish Life Permanent's share took the heaviest hit, losing more than 5 per cent of its value as it shed 28 cent to €5.07. Bank of Ireland was 4 per cent weaker at €5.169, while Anglo Irish dropped 12 cent to €5.33. With some decent buyers around for the stock, AIB was spared the worst of the sell-off as it closed the day just 3 cent weaker at €7.90.
A sharp spike in the oil price on the back of rising tensions between the US and Russia and a weaker dollar only helped to exacerbate problems for all markets and the Iseq was no exception.
Airline stocks were hit hard. Ryanair was under pressure towards the end of the day eventually closing more than 3 per cent weaker at €2.54. More than 5 per cent was knocked off Aer Lingus's share price as it ended the day at €1.468.
CRH came under pressure as Swiss peer Holcim said that its second-quarter profit dropped after US construction slowed and transport and raw-material costs increased. CRH dropped by more than 4 per cent, with 70 cent knocked its share price to €16.05 although volumes were light with around 900,000 shares traded.
However, other construction related stocks fared better. Grafton tacked on 1.5 cent to €3.80, while Kingspan was nearly 1.7 per cent stronger at €6.64. McInerney was up nearly 6 per cent at €0.36.
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