The Irish market continued its downward spiral, although most stocks managed to rebound from their lows in response to a marginally better tone on international markets. But dealers warn that the Irish market is inherently weak at the moment and that it will not take anything major to send the market sharply lower.

The heaviest trading was in Anglo Irish Bank, where more than 3.3 million shares dealt as the price fell as low as #4.12 before rebounding to close down 23 cents on #4.27.

Financials were weaker than industrials and the two big banks were both lower, with AIB down 26 cents on #12.44 while Bank of Ireland was 15 cents weaker on #11.15, after dipping as low as #10.90 in earlier trading.

The biggest trading in industrials was in Smurfit where almost 2.5 million shares dealt as the price rose a cent to #2.27. Elsewhere, CRH fell to a low of #19.15 before closing five cents easier on #19.50, while Eircom was unchanged on #1.33 as the market waits for a revised offer from Valentia. Glanbia was two cents higher on #1.04, while ITG fell 27 cents to #5.75 as it unveiled plans for a #30 million placing and open offer.

On overseas markets, Iona fell sharply for the fifth successive day and by midday on the Nasdaq was down almost 10 per cent to less than $18.

The share has fallen 40 per cent in the space of a week, mainly since the revision of future forecasts two days ago. Parthus is still suffering from a negative UBS Warburg note and fell 1p to 48.5p sterling.