The main financial shares took the brunt of a wave of selling as the Irish market fell sharply and New York failed to rebound from its overnight fall. Dealers said that, although volumes were sizeable, there was no mad rush to sell the market and added that the market was unlikely to fall much further before bargain-hunters went on the hunt for cheap stock.

The two big banks took something of a pounding, with both AIB and Bank of Ireland falling 35p, AIB to 885p and Bank of Ireland £12.65. Other financials were also weaker with Irish Life 30p lower on 565p and Irish Permanent down 15p on 865p. Anglo Irish lost 10p to 184p.

The leading industrials also came under pressure, with CRH down 30p on £10.30 while Smurfit fell 15p to 230p, well below its level immediately before the announcement of the JS Corp/Stone merger. JS Corp and Stone were largely unaffected by the Wall Street weakness with JS Corp down just $1/4 on $191/4 and Stone down $1/8 to $187/8 as the Irish market closed.

Other Irish stocks - especially the high-tech and pharmaceutical stocks - took a bit of a hammering on Wall Street with Elan over $21/2 lower on $611/4, Esat down $13/4 and Iona down $7/8 on $287/8. Remarkably, CBT went totally against the weak trend in the high-tech sector, and was $2 higher on $433/8 as the Irish market closed. Nasdaq newcomer Icon was $5/8 lower on $241/2p.

Powerscreen goes from disaster to disaster and fell 23p to a new low of 110p sterling London as the market responded to the latest profits warning.