Sharp drop in world stock markets

World stock markets moved sharply lower yesterday with major indices adding to weekly losses on the back of news that US April job gains came in at 115,000 and below expectations.

The Irish market followed its European peers downward and finished off 89.57 points at 3162.96.

Irish banks followed the market overall trend and were broadly down on the day. AIB and Bank of Ireland slipped 0.1c and 0.05c respectively to close at 7.7c and 10.4c. Irish Life and Permanent also eased back 0.1c to 3.4c.