It was another dismal day on the Dublin market which closed more than 2 per cent weaker, losing 99.57 points to 4,686.61 as bank and construction stocks again came under pressure.
General weakness in European banking stocks, combined with a number of broker downgrades of Irish banks, led to a general sell-off of most stocks in the sector.
Anglo Irish Bank bore the brunt of the exodus from bank shares as it saw 8.5 per cent wiped from the value of its shares on strong volumes, before it closed at €4.85. AIB fell back 34 cents or nearly 4 per cent to €8.21, while Irish Life & Permanent was 16 cents, or 3.3 per cent, weaker at €4.72.
Bank of Ireland, however, bucked the trend with decent institutional buying in the stock as some buyers concluded that it had been overly sold off in recent days. Its shares finished up 11 cents at €4.94
A number of construction stocks were also under pressure. There was some decent buying and selling in CRH but sellers eventually won out in the end as the stock closed 1.9 per cent, or 30 cents, weaker at €15.52.
Building materials group Grafton issued a management statement in which it said revenues fell by €200 million to €1.4 billion in the first half of the year due to the severe construction slowdown. The company, which has operations in Ireland and the UK said sales in its Irish unit were down 16 per cent for the first six months of the year to €520 million, but said it remained confident about the future. But that did not convince the market and the
However, despite posting a 60 per cent drop in pre-tax profits, housebuilder Abbey saw its share price advance by 2.8 per cent as it picked up 8 cents to €2.88.
Another strong performer on the day was Elan, which was 50 cents stronger at €23.47 by the time the market closed.
Ryanair had a miserable day as a spike in oil prices and the chaos at Dublin Airport weighed heavily on the stock. It fell back nearly 7 per cent to €2.665.
European stocks fell, led by retailers and food companies, on concern the economic slowdown and waning consumer demand will hurt earnings.
The Stoxx 600 lost 2.1 per cent to 277.95, extending this year's decline to 24 percent as concern deepened Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the biggest US mortgage-finance companies, may not be able to weather the worst housing slump since the Great Depression.
National indexes retreated in 17 of the 18 western European markets. Germany's DAX slipped 1.3 per cent as Deutsche Bank declined. France's CAC 40 slid 2.5 per cent and the UK's FTSE 100 dropped 2.2 per cent.