The Irish stock market proved more resilient than its larger European peers today. Nonetheless it closed the session in negative territory, with airline stocks leading the fall.
Equities weakened as markets were disappointed by developments at the G20 meeting Cannes, including the failure to agree on increasing the fire-power of the euro zone’s bail-out fund.
“There was some progress but not the progress the market was anticipating,” a Dublin broker explained.
Encouraging non-farm payroll data from the US was overshadowed by concern over the handling of the euro zone debt crisis, with the major European markets shedding more than 2 per cent. The Iseq closed about 18 points lower at 2,664.54.
The aviation sector suffered after one of the world’s largest airline groups IAG issued disappointed numbers, which had a negative read-through for the industry.
Ryanair, which is due to release interim results on Monday, tumbled almost 5 per cent, or 17 cent, to €3.35.
Rival airline Aer Lingus tumbled about 5.5 per cent, or four cent, to 68 cent.
Building materials giant CRH weakened slightly despite a positive set of third quarter numbers from its peer Lafarge, which outperformed consensus expectations. The stock finished 11.5 cent lower at just below €12.79.
National benchmark indexes retreated in all but three of the 18 western European markets. France's CAC 40 dropped 2.3 per cent and Germany's DAX declined 2.7 per cent. The UK's FTSE 100 slid 0.3 per cent.
Additional reporting - Bloomberg
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