The Irish index of shares climbed this afternoon, as banks clawed back some losses and slightly upbeat trading statements helped push the market up.
The Iseq rose to 2,539 just before 3pm, up 45 points from this morning's opening.
Bank of Ireland, Irish Life and Permanent and AIB all made considerable gains in the day's trade. Bank of Ireland rose more than 7 per cent to €1.02, while IL&P gained 6.87 per cent to €2.35. More modest gains were seen in AIB's shares, which rose almost 5 per cent to 92 cent in early afternoon trading.
Meanwhile, Paddy Power's announcement that the bookmaker was moving in to the Australian gaming market with the acquisition of a 51 per cent stake in Sportsbet helped increase its share price 3.5 per cent this afternoon.
Kingspan also rose in the day's trading, adding almost 8 per cent at one point to €4.15. Earlier in the day the building supplies company released a trading statement that acknowledged the difficult market but predicted a slowing in the rate of decline in trading.
The FTSE 100 index was up 7.73 at 4339.10 at 2.45pm. Earlier this morning, the the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares was down 0.4 per cent at 828.49 points, having been up as
much as 834.32 points and down as low as 822.96 points.
"It is very mixed, but is not as bad as what it could have been given the carnage in U.S and Asian markets overnight. There does not seem to be any strong trend today. It is a lacklustre kind of a session. The market is taking a breather," said Peter Dixon, strategist at Commerzbank.
Energy stocks were the biggest loser as crude lost 1.7 per cent. Cairn Energy, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Total were down 1.2 to 3.4 per cent.
The banking sector also retreated from earlier gains. Banking and insurance group KBC slumped 26 percent after it posted a €3.6 billion first-quarter loss, hit by €4.1 billion of writedowns on its investment portfolio. It asked for government guarantees to cover more potential credit hits.
Credit Agricole lost 1.2 per cent after the group said its first quarter profit missed forecasts. Natixis, France's fourth-largest listed bank, slipped 12 per cent after it posted a widely expected first-quarter loss with its
earnings hit by write-downs.
"Yesterday's trend is continuing. The market is out of upward momentum and it's only logical that we're heading back down," said Steffen Neumann, strategist at LBBW.
UBS rose 2.8 per cent on reports the Swiss government is seeking a quick exit from its investment in the country's
biggest bank. The government said there will be no statement on the stake today and that it is still considering what to do when the UBS lock-in period ends on June 9th.
Meanwhile, also a focus for the financial sector was news that the Obama administration had proposed tougher controls for over-the-counter derivatives.
The plan included some Capitol Hill ideas to revamp regulations, such as mandatory clearing of standardised OTC derivatives, moving standardised OTC trading onto regulated markets and trading limits on some "look alike" contracts.
"It is hard to say. This might affect some of the financials. Obviously it will hit the big banks which have trading operations and hedge funds as well, but I am not sure if it is a huge thing that is on people's minds today," said Mr Dixon.
HSBC, Barclays, Standard Chartered and Credit Suisse were up 1.4 to 5.8 per cent.
Back on the downside, SBM Offshore slipped 12.5 percent after the Dutch maritime engineering group lowered its full year guidance and said it did not secure any major new orders for its floating production, storage and offloading platforms (FPSO's) for oil firms in the first quarter.
HeidelbergCement fell 7.4 per cent following an announcement the stock will be removed from the MSCI Germany Index on May 29th, 2009.
BASF lost 1.8 per cent after the German chemicals trade group VCI said the country was in for a 12 per cent sales drop in 2009.
Germany's DAX was 0.7 per cent lower and France's CAC 40 was down 0.6 per cent.
In the US, S&P and Dow stock index futures extended losses and Nasdaq futures briefly turned negative today after weak jobless data.
S&P 500 futures fell 3.8 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures shed 49 points, while Nasdaq 100 futures were up 1 point.
The dollar fell against the yen on the same jobless data. The dollar dropped to 95.25 yen after the data from around 95.45 just before.
