Shares in big Irish companies join in sell-off as UK recession fears mount

Across Europe equities tumbled to their lowest level since March 2021 as investors worried that surging inflation will fuel more aggressive monetary tightening, increasing risks of a recession

The owner of Irish Ferries, ICG, was among one of the largest fallers on the Irish stock market on Monday. Picture: Sam Boal

Irish shares joined in a global stock market sell-off, as investors feared being caught between the fight mounted by central banks to fight inflation and the costs to major companies entailed by higher borrowing costs. 

The major Irish multinationals, including CRH, Paddy Power-owner Flutter, Smurfit Kappa, and Kingspan, which rely on healthy economies around the world to sell their goods, fell by as much as 4%, wiping hundreds of millions of euro from stock market valuations.