Share prices across Europe have fallen again as renewed fears about the global economy appeared to temper investor confidence.
In Dublin, the Iseq was down 175 points or by nearly 4 per cent to 4,269 this morning.
This follows a steep decline on Wall Street overnight, as more signs of weakness in the US labour market and increasingly sluggish growth overseas fueled fears about the ability of the US economy to stage a recovery.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 344.65 points, or 2.99 percent, to 11,188.23, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 38.15 points, or 2.99 percent, to 1,236.83. The Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 74.69 points, or 3.20 per cent, to 2,259.04.
The sour mood hit prompted prompted stocks in Europe and Asia to fall today, sending the MSCI World Index to its worst weekly slump since 2002.
The MSCI World fell 12.51, or 1 per cent, to 1,269.52 at 9:20 a.m. in London, extending its longest losing streak since February and bringing the weekly slump to 5.6 percent.
The measure is down 20 percent in 2008 as subprime-related losses at global banks topped $500 billion and the global economy cooled.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares falling 1.6 per cent to 1,133.19 points upon opening.
Royal Bank of Scotland, Banco Santander and BNP Paribas were down between 1-4.8 per cent and ranked among the main negative weights on the benchmark.