Markets news on stocks, currencies and oil; equities slid Monday worldwide after valuations for the pan-European  Dow Jones Stoxx 600 and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index reached the most expensive levels in six years relative to earnings.

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said today that the success of the planned ‘bad bank” NAMA  - -the National Asset Management Agency - - is not based on any assumption of a return to the recent “bubble” prices for property. He said the Government may take majority stakes in Irish banks covered by the Government guarantee scheme if they need additional capital after loans are transferred to NAMA. He also said there will be a “risk-sharing mechanism” with the banks.

There were 75,065 births registered in 2008. This was the highest number of births recorded since 1896 when there were 75,332 births registered in the 26 counties.

Average Irish national house prices dropped by 1.1% in July according to the latest edition of the permanent tsb / ESRI House Price Index. This compares to reductions in June (-1.5%), May (-1.3%) and April 2009 (-1.9%).  In the first seven months of 2009 national house prices have fallen by 8.7% which compares to a reduction of 5.2% in the same period in 2008. Measured over the 12 months (year on year) to July, national prices were down by 12.5%. This compares to a decline of 11.7% recorded in the 12 months to June 2009. The average price for a house nationally in July 2009 was €238,828, compared with €261,573 in December and a peak of €311,078 in February 2007 - -  down 23%.

The Central Bank said today that Irish residential mortgage lending outstanding fell by €71 million in July -  - the fourth straight month of decline. The year-on-year increase was down to 1.2 per cent in July, from 1.9 per cent in June.  The underlying stock of Irish private-sector credit (PSC), which excludes write-downs and other valuation changes, fell marginally in July compared with June. However, the headline stock of PSC fell by €3.7 billion in July, reflecting continuing write-downs of loans, increased bad debt provisions and other valuation effects; this followed a corresponding monthly fall of €1.4 billion in June.

Deflation slowed as Eurozone annual inflation rose  to -0.2% in August 2009 according to a flash estimate issued by Eurostat, the EU statistics office. It was -0.7% in July.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and commodities.

House building firm McInerney today reported that since mid 2008, it has written down the value of its Irish landbank to an average of €26,000 per plot (-52%) and its UK landbank to an average of £27,000 per plot (-41%). It confirmed that the total value of its Irish property has more than halved since mid-2008. Including the writedowns, the reported pre-tax loss in H1 2009, was almost €171m.

Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.

Growth of Japan’s manufacturing sector gained momentum in August. The seasonally adjusted Nomura/JMMA Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 53.6, from 50.4 in the previous month, its highest level since November 2006, signalling a solid improvement in operating conditions. Robust growth of output and new orders supported the PMI at a level above 50.0, although further reductions in employment and pre-production inventories continued to weigh on the sector.