Wall Street's rebound from a 250 point loss at one stage to a close of minus 112 points gave international markets some reassurance, but the Irish market failed to respond in the same way as the major European markets and finished only a fraction ahead on the day.
Dealers said that, with the exception of AIB, CRH, Smurfit and Irish Life, the market is suffering from a severe shortage of liquidity, and even the speculation of intervention that sent the yen higher and the dollar lower failed to lure players into the market.
There is a view, however, that if Wall Street maintained its strong early surge all the way to the New York close then the Irish market should open strongly this morning.
Among the financials, there were mixed fortunes with AIB up 8p to £11.28, while Bank of Ireland was unchanged on £13.55. Anglo Irish was marked sharply lower with an 8p fall to 182p, Irish Life was 6p firmer on 636p although Irish Permanent lost 10p to 860p.
Despite comments from Dublin brokers that the stock is oversold and now cheap, CRH is finding it difficult to bounce back and closed down 20p on 870p, and is now 23 per cent off its high. Many in the Dublin market find it difficult to comprehend the change in sentiment towards the stock but believe that interim results at the beginning of September should improve that sentiment.
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