With dealers still trying to get to grips with the horrors of Tuesday's attacks in New York and Washington, there was little appetite for trading on the Irish market. As a result, trading volumes were very low and price movements were volatile.
Stocks with an American exposure remained under pressure as did airline and tourism stocks.
Ryanair fell another 13 per cent and has now declined 20 per cent in two days as the market tries to assess the impact of the latest events on the low-cost airline. Ryanair fell as low as €8.25 yesterday before closing €1.36 lower on €8.33. Irish hotel stocks were also marked down, although Jurys recovered from a €7.25 low before closing 20 cents lower on €8.00. Gresham lost eight cents to €0.72.
Among the larger capitalisation stocks, AIB - which missed out on the heavy falls on Tuesday - plummeted to a low of €10.10 before rebounding to close 63 cents lower on €11.00. Bank of Ireland clawed back most of Tuesday's losses, and at the close was up 70 cents on €9.60.
With no trading in New York, Elan traders had to deal through Dublin and the share - the biggest on the Irish market - hit a low of €53.00 before recovering to €55.41, a fall of €2.09 on the day. CRH hit a low of €16.60 before ending just 10 cents lower on €17.10, while Smurfit came back from a €2.05 low to close 11 cents lower on €2.15. Waterford Wedgwood, with its heavy exposure to American consumer demand, fell as low as €0.77 before recovering to end the day nine cents lower on €0.85.
Baltimore traded in size in London on speculation that its Content business might be sold, and the shares dealt up 3-3/4p to 17-3/4p sterling.
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