European stock markets fell sharply today, hit by Friday's worse than expected US inflation figures, which are seen as possibly preventing the Federal Reserve from cutting US interest rates.
Dublin's ISEQ ended down 190 points - around 2.7% - at 6,902. AIB and Bank of Ireland each lost more than 3.5%, closing at €15.13 and €9.95 respectively. But insurer FBD added 20 cent to €25 after a solid trading statement and a weekend report that it was a takeover target.
London's FTSE lost almost 2% to 6,278, while Paris and Frankfurt each fell 1.6%. Financial stocks were again the biggest losers, with Alliance & Leicester losing more than 5% to 658.5p.
US shares also fell as investors waited to see if banks would take advantage of a $20 billion Federal Reserve credit auction to boost liquidity in the banking system. Investors appeared wary as the Fed credit auction got underway on Monday morning. The results from the auction are not expected to be known until Wednesday.
The Dow Jones was down 90 points to 13,250 and the Nasdaq was off 33 at 2,603. Earlier, Tokyo's Nikkei index ended the day down 1.7% at 15,250.
