The pall over Irish banking shares darkens with each trading day, with no sign that the heavy selling pressure which has driven the two big banks to three-year lows is coming to an end.
Dealers reported heavy volumes in both Dublin and London, but there still seems to be nobody there who believes the banks are yet good value, despite their discount to their British and European peers.
AIB felt the brunt of the selling pressure and hit a low of €8.70 before ending the day down 46 1/2 cents on €8.73 1/2. Bank of Ireland sank to a low of €6 before recovering some ground to close seven cents lower on €6.18 while Irish Life & Permanent was 31 1/4 cents weaker on €8.28 3/4.
Industrial stocks were mixed with CRH suffering a heavy early fall to a low of €18.40 before eventually closing 85 cents lower on €18.58. While volumes in CRH were low, there was some chunky trading in Smurfit which closed unchanged on €2.89.
Elsewhere, profit-taking after its recent strong run knocked Ryanair back 70 cents to €13.20 while the dismal results and profit warning from BT was the main reason for Eircom's 12 cent fall to €4.02.
Fyffes saw good demand on the back of its internet expansion and was four cents higher on a new high of €3.32 while telecoms junior ITG jumped 57 1/2 cents to €12.57 1/2.
Minmet jumped 9 1/2 cents to 71 cents on the back of the good drilling results from its gold prospect in Devon.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)