Financials bear brunt of fall

THE Irish Index of shares followed the global indices as it fell 64.28 points to 4205.08. Yet again the financials took the brunt of the fall as the financial market slipped 167.92 points lower to 8337.45.

Bank of Ireland shed 32c to close at €10.88 and Allied Irish Banks fell 19c to €12.47. Irish Life and Permanent, and Anglo Irish Bank both lost 11c to close at €12.79 and €6.17 respectively. First Active fell 5c to €4.70 and IFG Group closed 3c lower at €0.85.

In the food sector Glanbia gained 5c to close at €1.65 and Greencore rose 9c to €3. Fyffes slipped 1c lower to €1.48 and IAWS lost 20c to finish at €7.60.

In the industrial sector Kingspan climbed 8c higher to €2.08 and DCC closed 2c lower at €10.13. IWP shed 15c to finish at €1.25 and Grafton Group rose 5c to €3.95.

Other movers included Jurys Doyle Hotels, up 15c to €8.15, and Ryanair, down 10c to €5.50. Riverdeep fell 19c to €2 and Galen Holdings climbed 5c to €7.15. Mixed day for US markets

US STOCK markets were mixed yesterday afternoon as blue-chips leaned lower after a profit warning from aerospace parts maker Honeywell International and a weak consumer sentiment report, while gains in chip and software issues tilted techs upward.

At around 1.25pm ET, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 39.39 to 8,340.02; it was 121 points lower earlier in the session. The Nasdaq composite gained 8.58 to 1,288.26. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was 4.13 higher at 891.04.

“It’s pretty mixed with light volume,” said Peter Green, market analyst at MKM Partners. “The warning from Honeywell is very discouraging, as is the sentiment number, but then the retail sales number was fine, so that may be giving us a little buoyancy. We’re also still worrying about Iraq.” One factor affecting stocks was the University of Michigan’s preliminary reading of September consumer sentiment, which showed a steeper-than-expected decline. The index fell to 86.2 from 87.6 in August, according to a media report. Economists were expecting a slight increase to 88. Shares loses ground as bad news weighs on Footsie

THE FTSE 100 Index was teetering above the 4,000 barrier yesterday after another gloomy day for investors in the City.

All but 11 of Britain’s biggest companies lost ground as a wave of bad news from the US weighed on the London market.

At one point the Footsie was off 157 points before a brief rally before the close saw it end the day down 76.9 points at 4008.

The slide shocked analysts given yesterday’s 3% fall and raised fears about a further sell-off after the weekend.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 80 points by the time the Footsie closed after tumbling by as much as 131 points in early trading.

Of the telecoms, mobile phone giant Vodafone slipped another 2%, or 2p to 90p, mmO2 fell 1p to 43p and BT closed 4p lower at 195p.

Morale in the sector was also knocked by reports Orange parent France Telecom was withdrawing its support from German mobile phone group MobilCom.

Among the top flight banks, Royal Bank of Scotland lost 46p to £14.59, Lloyds TSB fell 23p to 526p and HBOS tumbled 24p to 673p.

And fears about the impact of the falling stock markets on insurers saw Aviva, Friends Provident and Royal & Sun Alliance, top the fallers board.

It was another dark day for national carrier British Airways, which slumped below its 1987 flotation price of 125p. The airline, which will join the FTSE 250 later this month, fell 3p to 123p.