The Iseq index of Irish shares was down by 1.7 per cent or 92 points by 4.30pm, largely dragged down by financial stocks.
Weak economic data weighed heavily on banking stocks, particularly Central Bank data which showed mortgage lending grew at the slowest rate since 1992, a negative outlook for the sector from rating agency S&P and CSO figures which said that the Irish economy contracted in the first quarter.
By 4.30pm, shares in Irish Life & Permanent had plunged by nearly 9 per cent as the stock shed 66 cents to €6.71. Bank of Ireland also took a hammering throughout the day. At one stage around 8 per cent was knocked off its value, the bank’s biggest one-day fall in eight years. By 4.30 pm, it had recovered marginally, with the stock down 7.3 per cent or 43 cents to €5.42 on strong volumes.
Anglo Irish Bank also endured a torrid day as it tumbled nearly 7 per cent to €6.05 with around five million shares traded.
AIB suffered least among the financials but was still more than 3 per cent weaker at €9.69.
Building company McInerney was one of the worst performing stocks, plunging more than 12 per cent to €0.50 by 4.30pm.
Despite figures which showed that sales of its cider in the British market rose by 14 per cent in the month to the middle of June, C&C also had a day to forget as it dropped more than 9 per cent, or 36 cents, to €3.46.
There were few positives on the day although food stocks were generally stronger. Kerry was up 3.9 per cent as it tacked on 71 cents to €19. Greencore was 1.6 per cent stronger at €1.93 and IAWS was also up 1 per cent to €15.86.
Elsewhere, European stocks rose as record oil prices boosted energy stocks and higher metals prices lifted commodity producers.
The UK’s FTSE 100 index advanced 1.74 per cent to 5,626, Germany’s DAX was flat at 6,418 while France’s CAC40 rose 0.85 per cent to 4,435.