It wasn’t just bond markets which took a battering today. Equities had a torrid day, as the ISEQ ended the day 1.5 per cent down, with virtually all stocks ending the session in negative territory as reports that Ireland may need to seek IMF help proliferated at home and abroad.

While the Department of Finance strongly refuted the suggestion - which traders said stemmed from reports on yesterday’s Barclays Capital report on the Irish economy - Irish equities as well as the debt markets were shaken, according to Dublin traders, who described the trend as extremely worrying.

The Dublin index underperformed in comparison to its European peers, closing down 40 points, or 1.5 per cent.

Bank stocks took the biggest hit, although this was to some extent due to index reweighting, which saw AIB fall out of Euro Stoxx 600 by close of business. AIB shed 11 per cent to close at €0.62.

Bank of Ireland lost 7 per cent, closing just under €0.62 , although it did see decent volume towards the close due to the implications of the sector reweighting on the stock.

Irish Life & Permanent also closed 3.7 per cent down at €1.55.

Elsewhere, there was little news-flow to direct the flow of the index, though almost all stocks closed in negative territory, as Ireland took a bashing on the bond markets as the

cost of borrowing continued to escalate.

Index -heavyweight CRH lost 1.5 per cent to €12.18 and was one of the worst performers among its sector peers in Europe.

Concern about the fragility of the Irish economy weighed on markets across Europe, which was also brought down by a lower- than-forecast U.S. consumer confidence report.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 0.2 per cent to 262.86 at the 4:30 p.m. close in London, extending its first weekly loss this month to 0.7 per cent. France's CAC 40 declined 0.4 per cent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 lost 0.6 per cent, as did Germany's DAX Index.