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Local public companies were not immune to market fluctuations that sent the major indexes down and then back up Thursday.

Line data feeds of local stocks all looked the same. Gradual declines in midmorning trading continued until about 1:30 p.m. Then stocks took big plunges to a daily low around 1:46 p.m. or 1:50 p.m.

Most local stocks rallied back a point or two, but traded below Wednesday’s close as the bell rang.

A local analyst offered an explanation.

“What’s making the stock market volatile is fear that what’s happening in Greece will spread to Portugal, Spain, Ireland and perhaps Italy,” said Michael Gibbs, a managing director and director of equity strategy for the Memphis-based investment bank Morgan Keegan & Co.

Greece is heavily indebted, and its fiscal policy is out of control, Gibbs said. While the country makes up only 2 percent of the European Union’s gross domestic product, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy combined have $3.3 trillion of government debt.

If the financial systems of all five countries were to destabilize, the global economic recovery could be affected, Gibbs said.

“I don’t think the U.S. banks are that exposed. But the fear is if (trouble) builds in Europe, it will slowly get around the globe until it slowly chokes off the economic recovery,” he said.

So, how did Memphis companies fare?

Verso Paper stocks ended the day down 57 cents, or a little more than 12 percent, from Wednesday’s close to end the day at $4.17 per share. It was the biggest percentage decline of any Memphis company and was likely fueled, too, by a morning quarterly report that showed a net loss of $53.6 million.

AutoZone stock lost $4.90 per share to end the day at $178.13 per share, a loss of more than 2 percent. The stock was down to $171.86 at the market fall’s crescendo.

FedEx Corp. stock ended the day at $85.99 per share, off nearly 3 percent from Wednesday’s close. Nearly 313 million shares of FedEx traded hands Thursday.

FedEx and UPS are considered leading indicators of national and global economic conditions because of farflung networks and connections to industrial output and retail sales.

Their losses for the day mirrored the 3.18 percent drop in the Dow Jones Transportation Average, with FedEx shares down 2.9 percent and UPS shares down 3.25 percent.

“They are not protected from volatility, but rather more volatile because of the exact nature of their business,” said Helane Becker, who follows air freight and airline companies as managing director of research at Jesup & Lamont Securities.

She added, “They are very economically sensitive, so if China slows its growth and Europe is mired in a long-term recession, which I think is likely, then growth at FedEx, UPS and the rails will slow. They’ll still be profitable, just not as profitable as people think. It will turn out we are in the peak, rather than the start, of the recovery.”

Memphis retailer Fred’s Inc. was one of the only bright spots on the local landscape of public companies. Its shares gained less than a quarter of a percent to end the day at $13.34.

Fred’s was buoyed by promising sales figures released Thursday that showed bumps in its first quarter and in April.

Arlington-based medical device maker Wright Medical Group Inc. found its stock off more than 2 percent at the closing bell even after beating Wall Street expectations in its first quarter. It ended the day at $18.62, though it had dropped to $17.55 at the worst of the fall.

— Staff writers Wayne Risher and Tom Bailey contributed to this story.

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