European equity markets dived sharply lower this morning after a less than expected cut in US interest rates. The ISEQ slumped 113 points or 2.1 per cent to 5,334 at mid-session with all sectors in the red.
All leading shares fell as investors gave the thumbs down to the Fed half-point rate cut. AIB shed 31 cents to euro 10.90, Bank Of Ireland also fell 31 cents to euro 8.77. Bank of Ireland has now given up all the gains it made at the beginning of the year.
Eircom is 6 cents lower at 2.37, Kingspan came under selling pressure as investors interpreted yesterday's results statement as a profit warning.
Independent Newspapers and Fyffes reported results this morning. Independent fell short of forecast reporting a 13 per cent increase in profits and warned of a global downturn this year. The shares were off 11 cents at euro 2.74.
The message from Fyffes this morning was that 2001 wouldn't be as bad as 2000 for the beleaguered fruit importer. The shares lost 3 cent to euro 0.91.
London nursed hefty losses nervously awaiting Wall Street's restart for fresh direction.
All the broader FTSE indices were also solidly in negative territory, with the FTSE 250 index one of the worst off - dropping 114.0 points to 6,104.9.
However, trading volumes remained very thin in London, with just 742 million shares changing hands in 52,839 transactions.