July 08, 2008 at 3:00 pm by Tom Lydon
Shares for Ireland’s second-largest bank fell by their biggest amount in 19 years after they delivered a dose of news about the economy that could weigh down the country’s newly-minted exchange traded fund (ETF).
The Bank of Ireland lost 12% after saying that market turbulence and slow economic growth could cut into profits. It hasn’t lost that much since July 1989, reports Ian Guider for Bloomberg. Last month, the Economic and Social Research Institute said that Ireland’s economy could enter a recession this year, for the first time in more than two decades.
The bank didn’t go into extensive detail, but said the slowdown is most pronounced in its Irish retail business. It’s just the latest bit of bad news for Ireland’s economy, which has slowed down in the wake of a housing crisis, reports Steve Goldstein for MarketWatch. In the first quarter, the economy shrank an annualized 1.5%.
The numbers could hurt the Irish ETF, NETS ISEQ 20 (IQE), which launched on June 16. The Bank of Ireland is the fund’s fourth-largest holding, with 7.5% of assets.
Tags | Europe, Financial, Ireland, Real Estate
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