European markets might have rallied from their early losses but the Irish market failed to respond to New York's unexpectedly firm opening and closed well down on the day. With banking stocks taking a bath all across European bourses, the main fallers in Dublin were the financial stocks.

There was no mad rush to unload large volumes of stock and the fall in financials was more a case of prices being marked down. Just 1.4 million Bank of Ireland shares traded as they closed down 19 cents on €9.69, while only 733,000 AIB shares traded as they lost 28 cents to €11.60.

The biggest trading once again was in Eircom but this still represents little more than hedge funds closing off their positions ahead of the completion of the Valentia takeover. More than 6.5 million Eircom shares traded as they stood still on €1.34.

Results from Fyffes were well ahead of forecasts, but the share still lost nine cents to €1.38 as short-term investors took profits after the share's recent strong run. CRH lost 11 cents to €17.30, while Ryanair was nine cents lower on €10.42. A major contributor to the fall in the index was a €1 fall by Elan to €58.50, while Elan ADS's were trading 3 per cent lower in early New York trading at $51.50.

There was heavy trading in Smurfit, where almost 5.8 million shares traded as it fell as low as €2.25 before closing 11 cents lower on €2.33. Kerry - ahead of interim results today - was unchanged on €14.25, while Dunloe Ewart managed to rebound from recent weakness with a four-cent gain to €0.34.

On overseas markets, Parthus was the biggest faller after a savage downgrade by UBS Warburg, which put a 25p sterling price target on the shares.