Small-cap resources stocks on the IEX were looking perky, though, as skyrocketing oil prices gave the sector a lift.

Petroceltic was the biggest winner, reaching 0.155, up 11.51% on the week. Providence Resources followed close behind, ending 8.9% higher at 0.11.

On the losers' ledger, Smurfit Kappa took an 11.1% tumble to 13.49 after stockbrokers Davy slashed their profit forecast for the packaging firm by 5% due to higher input costs.

Bathroom suite manufacturer Qualceram suffered a 19.3% decline after announcing on Thursday it would miss its earning guidance because Ireland's property slowdown would affect demand for its products.

European stocks had their first decline in six weeks after earnings from Ericsson and Royal Philips Electronics missed analysts' estimates, deepening concern profit growth in the region is slowing.

Ericsson fell to the lowest in more than three years and Philips had the steepest weekly loss since September 2003.

Barclays and Deutsche Bank led bank shares lower after Bank of America and Wachovia in the US said loan losses had eroded profits.

The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index lost 2.5% to 380.88, snapping the longest streak of weekly gains since October 2006. The measure had rallied 11% since reaching a five-month low on 16 August on speculation profit growth and takeover deals would weather rising debt defaults and a US housing recession.

The average earnings growth estimate for Stoxx 600 companies this year fell to 9.56% from 10.68% six weeks ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

National benchmarks dropped in all 18 western European markets, except in Spain. The UK's FTSE 100 tumbled 3%, while Germany's DAX Index decreased 2%. France's CAC 40 Index fell 1.8%. The Stoxx 50 lost 2.9% and the Euro Stoxx 50, a measure for the euro region, slid 1.5%.

Bank of America, the second-largest US bank, said on Thursday that about $4bn in trading losses, defaults and write-downs caused third-quarter pro"t to drop 32%, more than analysts estimated.

One day later, Wachovia reported its first earnings decline in six years after a record $1.3bn of write-downs for bad loans and mortgage-backed securities.

A measure tracking bank stocks sank 4%, the biggest weekly loss in three months. Barclays, the UK's third-largest bank, retreated 9%.

Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest, decreased 4.5%.

Northern Rock, the UK mortgage lender bailed out by the Bank of England, plummeted 32%, the biggest loss in the Stoxx 600.

Credit Suisse Group said there was "signi"cant downside risk" following a bid approach from a team led by Virgin Group.

Scottish & Newcastle soared 19%, the steepest gain in the Stoxx 600, after Carlsberg and Heineken said on Wednesday they are considering a bid for the UK's largest brewer. Scottish & Newcastle has called the approach "unwelcome".

Milestones
Friday marked the 20th anniversary of Black Monday, the 1987 stock market crash that blew a quarter of the value off the Dow Jones Industrial Average and precipitated a global sell-off in equities. As the credit bubble deflates, investors are wondering whether today's five-year bull run might, too, be heading over a cliff.

Numbers

DUBLIN ISEQ 7,791.86 DOWN 2.85% .EUROPE DJ STOXX 50 4,411.26 DOWN 1.45% .

OIL Brent = $83.79 UP 3.33% .LONDON FTSE 100 6,527.90 DOWN 3.01% .NEW YORK Dow 13,522.02 DOWN 4.05% NASDAQ 2,725.16 DOWN 2.87% .

EURO/DOLLAR 1= $1.4265 UP 0.8%

Equity movers

IRISH SHARES
GAINERS Company Price + % Petroceltic .155 11.51 Providence Resources .11 8.91 Aminex .345 7.81 Paddy Power 27.3 7.69 Siteserv .61 7.02 C&C 5.422 5.49 Glencar Mining .142 5.19 CPL 5.95 4.75 Kenmare Resources .91 4.60 Fy f fes .93 4 .49
LOSERS Company Price - % Qualceram 1.05 19.23 Smurfitt Kappa 13.49 11.07 Datalex .70 7.89 McInerney Holdings 1.70 7.61 Irish Life & Permanent 14.97 6.44 Anglo Irish bank 12.074 6.40 Newcourt Group 1.37 6.16 CRH 26.06 5.92 DCC 19.809 5.67 Kingspan 16.06 5.53
INTERNATIONAL GAINERS Company Price + % China Mobile HKD147.90 9.47 Babcock&Brown AUS5.05 5.87 Britvic 336.5p 5.07 Telefonica 22.54 4.64 Intel 26.64 4.19 Wyeth $47.76 4.07 Ceva 9.83 3.11
LOSERS Company Price - % Northern Rock 186.9 31.6 Ericsson SEK18.86 28.99 Lehman Bros $56.9 11.68 Aviva 697p 11.04 Merill Lynch $66.91 10.73 Citigroup $42.8 10.59

The week ahead

MONDAY Results: American Express, Apple, Halliburton, Merck, Schering Plough,
TUESDAY External trade UK CBI quarterly industrial trends EU industrial orders Results: Amazon, Icon, Biogen Idec, BP, AT&T, Debenhams, Dupont, JetBlue, STMicroelectronics
WEDNESDAY CPL Resources AGM Enterprise Ireland conference on business model innovation Retail sales US existing home sales EZ PMI, EU current account Results: ConocoPhillips, General Dynamics, GlaxoSmithKline, Symantec, Volvo, VMware
THURSDAY ECB governing council non-policy meeting Wholesale prices US durable goods, new home sales German Ifo survey, import prices Results: Trinity Biotech, Aviva, ABB, BristolMyers Squibb, Canon, Daimler, Elan, Hartford, Indesit, Microsoft, McAfee, Motorola, Sony
FRIDAY IAVI president's lunch Industrial stocks, capital assets EZ money supply US UMich consumer confidence index German GFK consumer confidence index Results: Tim Horton's

The week that was

OIL BREAKS IRAN-IRAQ WAR RECORD OIL touched a high above $90 a barrel late last week, breaking the all-time record set during the early days of the Iran-Iraq war, before falling back below $85 on Friday as the US energy department reported higher than average crude stockpiles.

Prices have been at historic highs for two years now as the threat of disruption in Iraq, Iran and Nigeria has raised fears about supply. Last week the market reacted to the sudden rise in tension on the Turkey-Iraq border as Turkey threatened military incursions to stop attacks from Kurdish nationalists hiding on the Iraqi side. Sentiment wasn't helped by the process in the US congress of a resolution recognising the Turkish genocide of Armenians in 1915, a notorious sore point with the Turkish government.

Analysts are calling Friday's price retreat temporary and predicting oil will soon reach $100 a barrel. A falling dollar, however, means that in real terms the price isn't rising that dramatically for euro-based economies.

AIB MAKES GOOD ON STAMP DUTY

A YEAR ago AIB said it had completed its investigation of customer overcharging . . . a review that yielded 11m for account holders and 20.6m in charitable donations . . . but this week Ireland's largest bank revealed it had recently reimbursed 266,000 in stamp duty charges made to 3,700 non-resident credit card-holders over the last 10 years.

The bank has sent written apologies to the customers and notified the Financial Regulator of its actions.

AIB was the first bank to get caught up in the overcharging scandal when it was revealed in 2004 that the bank had been charging too much commission on foreign exchange transactions. Working with the banking sector, the Financial Regulator ultimately uncovered 167m worth of overcharging across the industry, 118m of which had been paid back by the end of 2006.

GOOGLE BEATS ALL YET AGAIN

INTERNET search giant Google beat analysts' expectations again with third-quarter profits of $1.07bn last week. Sales increased by 57% to $4.23bn in the quarter, the 13th quarter in a row where Google's sales growth has topped 50%. Capital spending grew to $552.6m from $492.2m and the company said it will continue to make aquisitions.

Google accounted for 61% of global search queries compared to Yahoo's 14% and is expected not only to be the leading search engine by year's end . . . again . . . but also the largest advertiser by volume. Last month Google expanded its Adsense system onto mobile phones.

US MOVES ON ENGLISH SOCCER STRIP

ENGLAND'S three lions strip was under threat last week as rumours swirled in the markets that sports giant Nike was going to take over the much smaller soccer gear manufacturer Umbro following news of a takeover approach by an unnamed rival.

A successful Nike bid would put the England shirt sponsorship in American hands . . . a sacrilege in the country that invented soccer.

On Friday JJB Sports, Britain's second-largest sports retailer, bought a 10% stake in Umbro to protect its interests. Umbro, which sponsors 140 teams around the world, accounts for 12% of JJB's revenue.

Umbro's lucrative kit contract with the English national side makes them a very attractive proposal for British sports apparel retailers.Britain's largest sports retailer, Sports Direct International, already owned a 15% stake in Umbro.

Umbro shares surged 28% on the week, putting the company's value at nearly �250m.