Major European stock markets closed sharply down in response to growing fears that the Greek debt crisis will spread to other weak eurozone economies.
Today's falls were the largest in more than two months, weighed down by debt downgrades on Greece and Portugal from rating agency Standard & Poor's. Banks across Europe were the biggest losers, with some of the largests institutions dropping between 2% and 6%. Greek banks shed over 9%, while Greek shares fell 6%.
London's FTSE fell 2.6% to 5,604 points, with Lloyds Banking Group losing 3% to 68p, even though today it reported a return to profit in the first quarter. The Frankfurt DAX sank 2.7% to 6,160 points and the CAC in Paris plunged by 3.8% to 3,997.
In Ireland, the ISEQ lost 4.5% (157 points) to close at 3,341. Bank of Ireland fell back almost 10%, or 19 cent, to €1.72 after strong gains yesterday on the back of reported strong demand for its share placing. AIB ended 6.8% down at €1.45 and Irish Life & Permanent lost 6% to €3.05. Building materials group CRH, the market's biggest company, dropped 7.3% to €20.35.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones closed down more than 200 points due to fears about the euro zone debt crisis. The Dow fell 213 points (1.9%) to end at 10,992, while the Nasdaq lost 51 points (2%) to 2,471.
Earlier in Tokyo, the Nikkei closed up 0.4% to 11,213, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.5% to 21,262.
