Dublin's ISEQ plummeted 160 points (close to 4%) to close at 3,976 today - below the 4,000 bar.
Banks were mostly sharply down, with Anglo Irish Bank losing 16%, or 90 cent, to €4.70 after speculation of a takeover of building society Irish Nationwide. Bank of Ireland was down close to 10%, or 51 cent, to €4.69. AIB closed down 5.31% at €5.90. Irish Life & Permanent bucked the trend, racing another 4% higher after Friday's strong gains to stand at €6.40.
European stocks also tumbled today, though not as dramatically as Dublin, with London's FTSE shedding 1.41% (75 points) to close at 5,236 points.
In Paris, the CAC fell 2.34% to 4,224 points while in Frankfurt the DAX lost 1.32% to 6,108 points.
US stocks opened weaker today as Wall Street turned cautious about a massive $700 billion government plan to bail out the banking industry and prop up confidence in financial markets.
On the heels of a powerful relief rally last week, the Dow Jones dropped 218 points (nearly 2%) to stand at 11,171 and the Nasdaq slipped 53 points (2.3%) to 2,221.
Earlier Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index added 170 points to close at 12,091 - up 1.4% - after news of the US government rescue plan. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng closed up 304 points at 19,632.
