Bleak day on ISE with low-volume trading

It was another bleak day on the Irish Stock exchange, with low volumes in sales and those share deals that did occur leaving the Iseq index down. It ended the day down 42.77 points, at 2,810.68.

Financials generally did poorly, reflecting what happened to their fellow banks around the globe as investors worried about global recession.

Irish Life and Permanent did particularly poorly as a result of rumours that it was going to drop out of the MSCI World Index, a reputable index of world stocks. Falling out of the index would prompt funds to sell the stock and as a result its share price fell 20.39 per cent, ending the day at ¿2.07.

AIB ended the day down 8.33 per cent, at €3.30, while Bank of Ireland ended down 2.01 per cent, at €1.51. Anglo Irish fell 1.66 per cent, to ¿2.01.

Britain's leading share index ended lower as fears of a sharp global slowdown

weighed again on investors, with commodities and banking stocks the biggest losers. The FTSE 100 index closed off 3.57 per cent or 157.23 points at 4,246.69 points, near its low for the session, after gaining 38.96 points, or 0.8 per cent on Monday.

European shares closed sharply lower, pressured by banking and commodity stocks, as a poor corporate outlook worldwide and a flurry of grim economic data raised concerns about a deep global recession.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares ended 4.2 per cent lower at 883.56 points, after rising 0.9 per cent on Monday. The index has lost 41 per cent this year, hammered by the credit crisis and resulting economic slowdown.