0And then came the market recovery. The Financial Times reported that Mr Tony Kiniry, head of over-the-counter trading at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell in North America, stood up with fists clenched, threw his arms in the air and shouted "Yes, baby!"

"Let's get this thing going," implored one of his traders, who has the words "fundamentals are for sissies" pinned on his computer screen.

At Balls Brothers, a traders' bar, Mr Nick Thorniley of Panmure Gordon took a sanguine view: "It is all just marking down. It is nothing like 1987," he said. We're sure it was nothing like this in Dublin.