The Iseq index of Irish shares lost more than 4% on Friday, putting it at a loss for the week after stocks appeared to have rallied through Wednesday.

HBOS, the UK's largest mortgage provider, and Dutch lender ABN Amro led the decline. Antofagasta and Boliden paced mining shares lower as metal prices tumbled.

The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index dropped 2.5% to 362.77, a five-month low. The measure has fallen 9.4% since reaching a six-and-a-half year high on 1 June. The Stoxx 50 sank 2.4%, while the Euro Stoxx 50, a measure for the euro region, lost 1.6%.

Shares in banks, brokerages and money managers tumbled worldwide this past week amid signs that the debacle in the US mortgage market is spreading. BNP Paribas, France's biggest bank, halted withdrawals from funds and the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan all pumped cash into the banking system, aiming to stem a collapse in credit markets.

"It's a bit of a can of worms that has been opened, '" said Toby Nangle at Baring Asset Management in London. "We are not quite sure where it will end. We might see a major economic impact."

National benchmarks fell in all 18 western European benchmarks. The UK's FTSE 100 dropped 3%, France's CAC 40 sank 2.7% and Germany's DAX decreased 1.2 %.

"Everyone is very afraid, " said Jacques Porta, at Ofivalmo Patrimoine in Paris.

"There's lack of confidence in the financial sector. I am selling banks."

HBOS slid 8.4% to 873 pence.

Man Group, the world's largest publicly traded hedge fund company, tumbled 12% to 479.25 pence. Dexia, the owner of US bond insurer Financial Security Assurance, fell 4% to 19.16.

Deutsche Bank dropped 3.3% to 95.19. Germany's biggest bank said the assets in one of its investment funds have fallen by 30% since the end of July as subprime mortgage losses roiled credit markets.

The European Central Bank loaned 156bn in the last two days of the week.

The Fed added $24bn in temporary reserves on 9 Aug, while Canada's central bank also pumped money into financial markets. The Bank of Japan added 1 trillion yen to the financial system on Friday.

BNP Paribas dropped 1.9% to 78.97. France's biggest bank said it halted withdrawals from three investment funds because it couldn't "fairly" value their holdings after subprime mortgage losses rattled debt markets.

ABN Amro, the target in the world's biggest banking takeover, lost 3.4% to 33.85 on speculation bids by Barclays or a group led by Royal Bank of Scotland Group may falter.

Recent market turmoil "does jeopardise the ABN Amro deal, " said Mike Trippitt, a London-based analyst at Oriel Securities. "If you believe the market, the current share prices are telling you the deal isn't going to happen, " he said.

Milestones

CHINA'S rampant commercial activity went orbital last week with plans to map the Moon. The Chinese space agency wants an unmanned lunar rover to survey the moon's soil to assess whether it contains mineable helium deposits.

The Helium-3 isotope is an ingredient for nuclear fusion and is extremely rare on Earth. Just 20 tonnes could supply US energy needs for one year. The next step is developing reactors that can process the fuel, worth $4bn per ton.

Numbers

.DUBLIN ISEQ 8,346.72 Down 2.89% on week
.EUROPE DJ Stoxx 50 4,161.29 Down 1.61% on week
.LONDON .NEW YORK DOW 13,239.54 Up 0.44% Nasdaq 2,544.89 Up 1.34%
.EURO/DOLLAR 1 = $1.369 Up 0.3%
.FTSE 6,038.30 Down 2.99% on week
.OIL Brent = $70.45 Down 7.87% on week

Equity movers

IRISH SHARES

GAINERS
Company Price + %
Oglesby & Butler 0.23 +15
Elan 14.10 +5.62
Irish Continental 23.00 +4.17
Minmet 0.186 +3.33

LOSERS
Company Price - %
Siteserv 0.55 -17.91
Readymix 1.99 -11.56
Thirdforce 0.187 -10.95
Fyffes 0.74 -10.84
Oakhill 1.65 -10.81
Waterford 0.033 -10.81
Smurfit Kappa 15.70 -10.13
Kenmare 0.83 -9.78
Veris 3.30 9.59
Petroneft 0.68 -9.33

INTERNATIONAL

GAINERS
Company Price + %
Cisco $31.39 6.55
Lehman Brothers $59.07 +5.90
Merrill Lynch $74.12 +5.81
American Intnl $64.67 +4.92

LOSERS
Company Price - %
Ceva $7.88 11.66
HBOS �8.73 -8.39
Britvic �2.85 -7.77
Statoil NKR158 -6.91
BT �2.95 50
Barclays �6.38 -6.04
Fortis 26.82 5.70
Liberty Global $40.62 -5.42
Unilever �14.67 -5.42
Apple $125.00 -5.20

The week ahead

MONDAY Construction PMI UK producer prices US retail sales Seminar on women in leadership, Mount Herbert Hotel, Dublin Results: Blackstone
TUESDAY Euroland GDP, industrial output UK inflation US producer prices, external trade German GDP Results: UBS, Wal-Mart, Intercontinental Hotels
WEDNESDAY UK unemployment Bank of England monetary policy minutes US inflation, industrial production and NAHB housing survey Results: Smurfit Kappa, E.ON,
THURSDAY Census housing data UK retail sales US housing starts German inflation Nobel prize winner for economics Robert Mundell addresses UCD conference on Chinese economy Results: Hewlett-Packard, British Energy, British Land
FRIDAY Earnings and labour costs Euroland harmonised consumer prices US consumer confidence The week that was

NO PLANE SAILING FOR AER LINGUS

The week began with a lesson for all budding PR hacks: the August bank holiday is NOT a good time to try to bury bad news. Aer Lingus' announcement that it was shutting down its Shannon-Heathrow route . . ."hey, it's okay because now you'll be able to fly from Belfast to London" . . .went down as the stinker of the year so far. Not since the flying boats stopped skipping over from Foynes to New York in 1945 have local lobby groups and politicians of all shades kicked up such a row. Even Ryanair, the caring, considerate 25% shareholder in Aer Lingus and champion of Government intervention in the aviation market wanted to know why Bertie and the boys hadn't secured the national flag carrier's (lucrative) landing slots in Heathrow. Of the myriad denunciations spewing from the midwest however, quote of the week goes to the mayor of Shannon, councillor Sean McLoughlin: "hands off our slots."

MARTIN NOT QUITE THE TICKET

One of the lesser-known perks of being a government minister is getting into gigs and football matches for free, but minister for enterprise, trade and employment Micheal Martin is not sharing the love according to the Labour Party. Consumer affairs spokeswoman Kathleen Lynch criticised the minister's review of concert and event ticket pricing last week as narrow in focus. She claimed the review had a pre-determined outcome and was drafted so as to leave many abuses still in place such as hidden booking charges and the ancient Irish tradition of ticket touting. "He insists he is not considering any action against the cosy cartel of promoters, agents and outlets who bleed so much extra from the consumer, by way of handling charges and booking fees that can add up to 20% to the original cost of a ticket, " said Lynch. Would you, if they let you in for free? However Martin may put some noses out of joint with his decision to ban credit card surcharges for retail purchases. Ticketmaster is not likely to send the Cork TD any complimentary Jazz festival passes after that.

HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES?

iPods, iPhones, iTunes Apple dazzled us with iLife last week. No, it's not a magic iWand that allows you to sample the daily iGrind of Apple chief executive Steve Job's (below) life, but a new application that allows owners of the shiny new iMac released last week to store and share digital photos and videos on the Apple's .Mac web gallery.

The most interesting part of Jobs' announcement was that Apple is working closely with Google to expand its internet presence and expand the .Mac subscription service. The online search giant already owns the iGoogle name, so Jobs will be hard pressed to come up with a new name for this budding iDea.