European shares trimmed earlier losses today as investors sought a floor in a global stock slide that saw Wall St record its biggest drop since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Currency markets also regained some poise, with the yen taking a breather from the previous session's lightning rally to 10-week highs versus the dollar when investors unwound yield-dependent yen carry trades in a bid to avert risk.
China's main Shanghai stock index, whose 9 per cent dive yesterday on regulatory concerns was cited by some as sparking the global selloff, bounced back almost 4 per cent. US crude oil dropped more than 1 per cent.
In Ireland alone, over €4 billion wiped off the value of Irish shares yesterday in what was one of the worst single trading sessions for the Irish Stock Exchange.
There are fears of a substantial fall in the value of many SSIAs with some estimated to lose as much as €1,050 from funds that had been invested solely in Irish stocks.
This afternoon the Iseq was down just over 1.4 per cent to 9,398.75.
Market nerves jangled as the factors behind investor worries were still in place, such as uncertainty over US monetary policy due to soft economic data and tensions over Iran's nuclear programme.
Although a precarious calm descended on stock markets global stocks were still deep in negative territory, safe-haven gold bounced from one-week lows and investors aimed to cut risk further as volatility measures skyrocketed.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 1.16 per cent at 1,488.65 points, up from an intraday low of 1,473.66 -- having extended yesterday's slide by up to 2 per cent within an hour of the opening bell.
The two-day sell-off around the world saw the MSCI world stock market index -- which had risen more than 4 per cent this year as recently as Monday -- lose all its gains for the year.
Wall Street's slide of more than 3 per cent yesterday also catapulted a key measure of equity market volatility -- known as the "fear index" and a closely-watched gauge of market risk aversion -- more than 64 per cent higher.