The Dublin market outperformed most European bourses today, despite trading which traders described as “nervous” and “scrappy”.
Continuing uncertainty over the euro zone and fears that the US Congress may not be able to agree a budget for next year, raising the spectre of another credit-rating downgrade for the world's biggest economy, left investors fearful once again.
"It's the same carry on, day in, day out, the markets took fright once again today," one dealer said.
The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index, which tracks leading shares across 18 European markets, sank 3.2 per cent to 224.76 this afternoon, its biggest retreat since the beginning the month.
In London, the benchmark FTSE 100 index was down almost 3 per cent at 5222.6.
Against this background, Dublin's performance was relatively strong, with the Iseq index of Irish shares losing 1.84 per cent to end the day at 2559.24.
Nonetheless, all the market's leading stocks lost ground, although, some such as Ryanair and CRH, performed better than their European peers.
"It was a nervous, scrappy sort of a day," one trader said, adding that volumes were not particularly strong anywhere.
Building materials behemoth, CRH, lost 2.34 per cent to close at 12.50.
While it lost ground, traders said that it outperformed most of its peers. The company looks set to enter the FTSE 100 index midway through next month, a move that it likely to give its shares a fillip, and investors may be waiting for the anticipated rise before selling its shares.
Energy and distribution group, DCC was down 0.74 per cent, a modest fall given that the unusually mild winter is likely to hit is home heating business.
The company has not ruled out following CRH and others and switching its main listing to London, with the consequence that investors seem to favour holding on to the stock, at least until its listing intentions are clearer.
Low-cost airline, Ryanair, dipped 0.2 per cent to close at 3.54, a performance regarded as relatively strong in the volatile environment.
Packaging group, Smurfit Kappa, was off 5.13 per cent at 4.14.
Food and agri-business group, Origin Enterprises, looked to the star performer after a positive trading update, showing underlying growth in revenues, lifted its shares by 3.73 per cent to 3.20.
However, the volumes involved were tiny, as just 20,000 of its shares changed hands.
Newspaper group, Independent News and Media, rose almost 7 per cent to close at 23.5 cent, bouncing back from the lows they hit on Friday.
