Sector movers: Irish banks under the cosh

Irish banks are sharply lower today as economic worries continue to plague the former Celtic tiger. New figures today show the debt-stricken country's economy shrank by between 1% and 2% between April and June. Allied Irish Banks is down 8% and Bank of Ireland is 6% lower. British banks are also under the cosh, though not as heavily. Lloyds, Standard Chartered and RBS are in the red.Velosi is recovering after the oil rig safety consultant fell on Tuesday and Wednesday following disappointing half year results. The stock is helping lift the oil equipment services and distribution sector higher today. It has been helped by comments from the broker FinnCap, which said yesterday: 'We believe the share price has over-reacted to interim results, which pointed to margin weakness. Indeed, the analysts meeting uncovered that the group is already seeing a pick up in its higher margined specialist services so that gross margins will recover in H2 [the second half].' Top performing sectors so far todayAlternative Energy 3,674.96 +0.91%Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 21,074.74 +0.68%Electronic & Electrical Equipment 2,317.82 +0.10%Electricity 6,940.63 +0.07%Bottom performing sectors so far todayAutomobiles & Parts 3,736.23 -1.96%Fixed Line Telecommunications 1,932.13 -1.32%Mining 22,229.05 -1.29%Mobile Telecommunications 3,685.39 -1.22%Banks 5,011.20 -1.09%