Oh, but how the Iseq index of the Irish Stock Exchange could use a strong performance on Thursday from its biggest listed company, CRH, when the building materials firm reports its interim results.

The Iseq has been battered and bruised since last Tuesday. It slipped more than 6 per cent in three days of trading before the weekend. Yesterday, it lost a further 5 per cent. Today? Who knows.

At least this time, it is not an Irish-made disaster. The Iseq is only tracking the savage beatings being meted out to bourses across the globe on foot of a growing realisation that China is in trouble. The FTSE 100 lost almost 5 per cent yesterday, while the Dax dropped 4.7 per cent.

CRH is responsible for fully 15 per cent of the €129.8 billion total market capitalisation of Iseq-listed companies. It isn’t merely the biggest fish in the pond. It is the whale in the bathtub.

There is no equivalent listed on, for example, the FTSE 100 in terms of its size relative to the total market capitalisation of companies on the index. A company with 15 per cent of London’s blue-chip index would be valued at £241 billion.

HSBC, at £100 billion, is the closest. CRH, in relative terms, is two-and-a-half times as important to the Iseq as the biggest member of the FTSE 100.

Stock market volatility aside, analysts expect a reasonably good set of results from CRH. The European market has stabilised and its operations in the US are performing well. And, rather ironically given the provenance of the current market jitters, CRH is not over-committed in troubled Asia.

But despite this, the Irish company got seriously battered in yesterday’s bloodbath. It finished down about 5 per cent, and at one stage looked to be heading for a double-digit decline before a late rally.

Also reporting on Thursday is the Grafton Group, which is no longer listed in Dublin. DCC, another great Irish industrial company, has also left the Dublin exchange.

CRH is left as the star of the show. There will be many people in Dublin praying it shines on Thursday.