European shares ended lower in choppy trade this evening on worries about a deep recession but falls among banks were offset by a rise in commodities tracking firm crude and metal prices.
A growing list of financial institutions acknowledged exposure to the alleged $50 billion fraud surrounding Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff.
London's FTSE 100 index slipped three points to close at 4,278 this evening. In Paris, the CAC 40 was down 28 points to end at 3,186, while the Frankfurt DAX lost nine points to close at 4,655.
Despite news of the Government's €10 billion bank recapitalisation plan, Dublin's ISEQ index only managed to gain six points to close at 2,511 - up 0.24%. The banking shares were mixed with Bank of Ireland gaining 10% to close at 98 cent, while Irish Life and Permanent rose 9% to end at €1.66. But shares in AIB were down 0.5% to €1.97 and Anglo Irish Bank slumped another 4.5% to 36 cent.
US stocks fell this evening as tech companies were hurt by concern over waning consumer spending and financials stumbled ahead of results from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The Dow Jones was down 0.6% to stand at 8,577 while the Nasdaq dropped 1.6% to 1,515.
Earlier, Tokyo's Nikkei climbed 429 points (5.2%) to close at 8,665, shrugging off news of a sharp drop in Japanese business confidence.
