Global equities suffered heavy losses on Monday as Wall Street joined a global stock rout that started in Japan while the dollar tumbled against the yen and US treasury yields dropped on concerns about a recession in the United States.
Dublin
The market at home was described as a “sea of red” by traders, but Euronext Dublin still managed to outperform many of its international peers as it closed down 1.2 per cent in bank holiday trading.
There were “massive, massive moves”, one trader said, pointing out they were all macroeconomic-related. “There was no stock-specific news for the Irish market,” she said, “but there was a massive sell-off.
“We had a bit of a rebound in the afternoon when the US market opened and things improved a bit, but there was a lot of forced selling and recent buyers turning to sellers – that type of thing.”
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Among the worst hit was AIB, which plunged 4.2 per cent. Bank of Ireland had recovered to close up 0.3 per cent. The trader pointed out that it may have escaped the worst of the damage after it was quite badly hit over recent days and had bottomed out.
Elsewhere, Ires Reit – the biggest landlord in the State – was down 2.5 per cent, while home builder Cairn Homes finished the day down 2.2 per cent. “It was a good bit lower earlier in the day, but it improved,” the trader noted.
Meanwhile, insulation specialist Kingpsan, one of the biggest names left on the market in Dublin, was down 1 per cent on the day, while Irish Ferries parent Irish Continental Group finished down 2.5 per cent.
Kerry Group was flat but is up 8.7 per cent over the past five days. Glanbia, another food name, was down 2 per cent.
“I think we probably did quite well overall in the Irish market,” the trader said.
London
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index fell 2 per cent to its lowest since April 2022 and clocked its worst day in over a year. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was off 2.8 per cent after falling to its lowest level in more than three months. All sub-sectoral indexes in London ended in the red.
Water utilities were the worst hit with a 4 per cent decline after Barclays said it was no longer positive on the sector and downgraded ratings on companies like Severn Trent and Pennon.
Precious metal miners closed 3.3 per cent lower as gold prices fell on wider market sell-off.
John Wood Group fell over 35 per cent to the bottom of the FTSE 250 after Dubai’s Sidara said it was walking away from its plan to buy the British oilfield services and engineering firm.
Europe
The main European stocks index hit its lowest in over six months on Monday, with energy and utility stocks at the forefront of a broad-based market slide.
The Stoxx 600 closed 2.2 per cent lower, but off the day’s low. The continentwide index logged its steepest three-day decline since June 2022, closing below the key 500-point mark for a second day.
Among big European bourses, Germany’s Dax, France’s CAC 40 and Spain’s Ibex 35 fell between 1.4 per cent and 2.3 per cent, hitting multi-month lows intraday.
Among single movers, Europe’s largest copper producer Aurubis slumped 12 per cent after a third-quarter pretax profit miss.
On the flip side, Infineon rose 1.3 per cent following job cut plans. Galderma rose 1.3 per cent after L’Oréal said it would acquire a 10 per cent stake in the Swiss skincare firm.
New York
Wall Street’s main indices slumped as risk appetite among investors dropped.
Apple fell 3.9 per cent after Berkshire Hathaway halved its stake in the iPhone maker, in a sign that billionaire investor Warren Buffett is growing wary about the broader US economy or lofty stock market valuations. Nvidia slid 6.1 per cent, while Microsoft and Alphabet fell about 3 per cent each.
At 11.30am eastern time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.17 per cent; the S&P 500 was down 2.42 per cent; and the Nasdaq Composite was down 2.77 per cent.
All the 11 big S&P 500 sectors were trading lower, with information technology and financials the worst hit. – Additional reporting: Agencies
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