Dublin's ISEQ index was dragged sharply lower this evening to close at 4,090 - a fall of 282 points or 6.5% - as Elan shares collapsed by a whopping 45%. At one stage earlier today, the index had crashed almost 9% to a five year low.
Shares in the Athlone-based company plunged €6.15, or 45.5%, to close at €7.35 after it said it had found two new cases of the potentially deadly brain disease PML in patients using its multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri. The banks were mixed, while Ryanair slumped nine cent to €2.34 and Aer Lingus flew two cent lower to end at €1.43.
Other European stock markets fell this evening, with London shedding 57 points (1%) to end the week at 5,355. In Paris, the CAC lost 78 points (1.8%) to close at 4,314, while in Frankfurt the DAX fell 83 points (1.3%) to finish at 6,396. Earlier Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index slumped over 2% to close at 13,095.
US stocks were lower this evening as car giant General Motors reported a massive $15.5 billion quarterly loss and as a new report showed 51,000 job losses in July. GM had warned investors to brace for further losses, but the extent of its second quarter loss was worse than analysts had expected. In reaction, the Dow Jones was down 66 points to stand at 11,312 while the Nasdaq had lost 20 points to 2,306.
