A dramatic sell-off swept across European equity markets today as investors “pulled in their horns” over contagion fears arising from the Greek debt crisis, a Dublin-based broker said.
The Iseq tumbled 4.5 per cent to 3,254.71, leaving it worse off than the core European markets, but in a slightly better position than other periphery countries such as Spain.
The banks got knocked, with Bank of Ireland leading the fall. The stock closed down almost 8 per cent at €1.54. Irish Life & Permanent wasn’t far behind, falling back below the €3.00 mark and finishing about 7.5 per cent down at €2.82. AIB shed 5.5 per cent to close at almost €1.36.
Cyclical stocks were badly hit by the sell-off, brokers noted.
CRH nosedived into the close after a weak day’s trading. The cement stock, which is due to issue a trading update this morning, was off 6.5 per cent, or €1.40, at €20.03. Brokers pointed out that this was a low close, as the stock fell about 2 per cent in the last five minutes of trading.
Likewise, Smurfit Kappa also had a rough day, slipping almost 5 per cent to €7.33.
Very few stocks escaped today’s sell-off, although financial services provider IFG succeeded in bucking the downward trend, gaining almost 7 per cent to close at €1.28.
Across Europe, the UK's FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX fell 2.6 per cent. France's CAC 40 sank 3.6 per cent.
Additional reporting - Bloomberg