Dublin's ISEQ index of Irish shares has closed at its lowest level since November 2003, losing more than 4% of its value as bank shares continued to take a beating.
The ISEQ ended down 199 points at 4,660, wiping €2.5 billion off the value of shares. Bank of Ireland lost 11% to €4.51 after warning shareholders that the current economic slowdown would hurt its profits this year, and there was too much uncertainty to give a profits forecast at the moment.
Irish Life & Permanent, hit by recent downgrades from credit rating agencies, tumbled more than 13% to €4.65, while AIB ended down almost 10% at €8.10. Bank of Ireland shares have now lost more than 75% since reaching their peak last year, while Irish Life & Permanent has dropped almost 80%. Ryanair jumped 29 cent to €2.83, however, as oil prices eased.
Elsewhere in Europe, London's FTSE fell 72 points (1.3%) to end at 5,441, led by energy and mining stocks as oil prices fell back. In Paris the CAC was down 1.5% to 4,276 while in Frankfurt the Dax lost 1.4% to finish at 6,304.
US markets moved slightly higher after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the bank may keep an emergency lending facility for big Wall Street firms open. The Dow Jones was up 32 points at 11,264 and the Nasdaq was 10 points higher at 2,253. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index slumped 2.5% to close at 13,033 earlier this morning.
