World stock markets suffered sharp falls this evening on renewed concerns about the health of the world economy. A grim outlook by the World Bank and declining commodity prices led by oil added to the nervousness.
Dublin's ISEQ dropped 111 points (4%) to close at 2,703. AIB fell 26 cent to €1.74 despite saying that a debt swap exercise had raised about €1 billion for the bank. Shares in Independent News & Media slumped seven cent to 26 cent after it said it was proposing a rights issue to pay its bond holders. The market's biggest company, CRH, dropped €1.06 to €16.94.
In London, the FTSE shed 112 points (2.6%) to close at 4,234, with BA losing almost 9% to 124.5p after weekend reports that the airline was considering selling its OpenSkies subsidiary only a year after it acquired it. But miner Anglo American gained almost 5% to £16.98 on news it had received a merger approach from rival miner Xstrata. In Paris, the CAC lost 3% to finish at 3,123, while Frankfurt's Dax also fell 3% to 4,693.
US stock markets also tumbled amid renewed concerns about an economic recovery and caution ahead of a two-day meeting of the US Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones was down 174 points at 8,366, while the Nasdaq fell 53 points to 1,775. Earlier, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index gained 40 points (0.4%) to end at 9,823, while the Hang Seng added 139 points to 18,060.
