News of the first Irish case of foot-and-mouth disease sent the Irish market into a tailspin today wiping over £4 billion off the value of Irish shares. The ISEQ closed 263 points or 5 per cent lower with food stocks suffering heavy losses in a wave of panic selling.
Glanbia fell 15 per cent, Golden Vale shed 22 per cent and Kerry lost 8.3 per cent as the country's worst fears came true. Tourism and travel companies also took a hammering. Ryanair fell 22 cents to euro 9.30 while Jurys fell 10 per cent to euro 8.11.
The gloom was compounded by further weakness on international markets with the Dow Jones index of US blue chips falling heavily on more bad corporate news. The Dow is now in a bear phase - where the market fall 20 per cent from its peak.
AIB fell 44 cents to euro 10.38, Anglo Irish lost 6 per cent to euro 3.10 and Bank of Ireland is 6.4 per cent lower at euro 8.25.
In London, the FTSE 100 suffered its biggest one-day loss since October 1992. The blue-chip index shed 225.9 or 4.1 per cent to close at 5.314.8 off a low of 5279.6. The decline wiped about £52 billion off value of leading stocks.
Invensys was the biggest blue-chip faller after a profit warning. The shares were down 9.8 per cent.
Telecoms continued mounting losses as chances of an imminent recovery looked increasingly slim. Vodafone dropped 5.2 per cent, Telewest dived 11.6 per cent while Cable & Wireless shed 5.7 per cent.
In New York the Dow was firmly in bear market territory by midday as news of more job cuts and poor earnings further damped sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen more than 270 points to around 9,210, while the S&P 500 index lost 28 points. The Nasdaq Composite held steady, at about 14 points lower.
Despite the Dow's seeming ability to repeat the Nasdaq's year-long decline in a matter of days, some analysts were adamant that the worst was yet to come.
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