Spectre of war still haunts markets
The value of shares trading on the Irish Stock Exchange fell by 1.7 billion euro as shares values fell by 3.1% in tune with markets across Europe.
Britain's FTSE 100 share index slumped 4% to its lowest level for eight weeks, as more gloom from the banking industry added to economic worries, while the threat of war still lurked.60 billion was wiped off share values.
Commenting on yesterday's spectacular falls Mr Hunt said: "If there is one thing the markets don't like, it's uncertainty and until the Iraqi situation is resolved, the spectre of war will hang over the market.
"The cost of oil is going up, which will hit corporations and consumer-spending. The market seems to have been under negative influences all year; we had Enronitis; the economy and now the possibility of war," he said.
In Britain, financial stocks were hit hardest, with Barclays down 8.2% and insurer Prudential down 9.2%, after US bank JP Morgan Chase issued a profit warning overnight. Alex Scott, research analyst at Seven Investment Management said: "The earnings outlook has been uncertain, unpredictable and relatively muted for all of this year. More and more investors are looking to the end of next year, if not later, for salvation from corporate earnings," he said.
British technology shares slid to their worst ever closing levels for a second consecutive session, with a warning from IT services group Xansa putting pressure on an already nervy sector, which was tracing Wall Street's retreat ahead of tonight's results from Oracle, dealers said.
The techMARK 100 index closed down 9.39 points to 706.15. The index moved between 728.26 and 706.18 during the volatile session. In Germany, shares extended their losses in afternoon trade, tumbling to levels last seen in February 1997 as technology stocks fell on the back of weak first-quarter Oracle figures. Insurers suffered after Swiss Life posted a first-half net loss, and banks wilted after a JP Morgan profit warning, dealers said.
Things were not helped by the fact that Germany's largest co-operative bank, DZ Bank, said it had been forced to tap over 1 billion from its reserves to cover unacceptably high expected risk provisions of around 1 billion this year. Previously, DZ Bank had expected only 700 million of risk provisions this year.
In Paris, shares finished sharply lower in volatile trading, down for the fifth consecutive session and close to four-year lows, as more discouraging corporate outlooks and US economic data reinforced expectations that recovery remains several months away, dealers said.
The CAC-40 index finished down 111.85 points or 3.6% at 3,000.98, its lowest closing level since October 8, 1998, and fell below the psychological 3,000 support yesterday afternoon. Volume for the day reached 3.85 billion.
In Amsterdam , the AEX index closed down 16.14 points to 316.05, just off an intraday low of 314.72 at 4.52pm after opening at 326.05.
