Banks down again

IRISH banks continued their bad run yesterday, losing ground for another day as the ISEQ plunged 4.2%.

AIB fell 6.7% to €1.14 while Bank of Ireland slipped almost 2% to €1.40. Irish Life and Permanent decreased 5% to €2.27.

Airlines also fell with Aer Lingus losing almost 3% to 69 cent and Ryanair also falling 3% to €3.10. CRH fell 4.8% to €18.14.

Mainland European stocks retreated after Germany unilaterally banned some bets against government bonds and financial institutions, sparking concern that regulation will increase.

Indices fell in all but one of the 18 western European markets. Britain’s FTSE fell 2.6% and Germany’s Dax slid 2.7%. France’s Cac 40 fell 3%, while Greece’s ASE Index rose 0.4%.

Meanwhile, Japan will struggle under a debt curse for the next seven decades as the world’s largest industrialised economies try to pay off government borrowings built up in the recession, Switzerland’s IMD International business school said.

Italy, Portugal, Belgium, the US, Iceland and Greece will need more than two decades to bring their debt under that level, IMD said.