Major European stock markets reversed course late in the day and closed with gains, as gains in oil shares and a rally on Wall Street helped to overshadow investors' nagging concerns about a looming recession.
Oil shares made the biggest gains, while banks were the major losers.
The London FTSE 100 index added over 1% to finish at 4,088 while in Paris the CAC 40 rose 0.4% to 3,311.
The Frankfurt Dax fell just over 1%, however, to close at 4,519.
In Dublin, the ISEQ closed down 16 points (0.6%) at 2,711. Banks closed mostly in negative territory, with Irish Life & Permanent dropping the hardest to close 45 cent down, or close to 13%, at €3.10. Anglo Irish Bank was down 5 cent at €1.75 and Bank of Ireland was down just one cent at €1.64. AIB bucked the trend, closing 13 cent up (nearly 4%) at €3.52.
On Wall Street markets are volatile this afternoon, but a short time ago the Dow Jones was up 2%, gaining 177 points, while the Nasdaq was about flat.
Today's biggest falls were in Asia.
Earlier, Japan's Nikkei index tumbled over 7% at one point, hitting levels last seen in May 2003. The Nikkei eventually ended down 2.46%, or 214 points. Hong Kong share prices dived 3.6%, 506 points lower, following concerns over a negative corporate outlook.
