International markets spent most of the day Fed-watching and most markets ended pretty flat ahead of the 7.15 p.m. announcement on US interest rates. The Irish market, however, saw some chunky two-way trade with weakness in Elan shares the main factor in the fall in the index.

Both banks traded more than 2.5 million shares and AIB bounced back from a €12.40 low to close 14 cents lower on €12.52, while Bank of Ireland recovered from a €10 low but still lost 34 cents to €10.14.

Among the industrials, Elan lost €1.80 to €47.50 in Dublin in volume of 162,000 shares.

That weakness continued in New York where the shares lost $1.77 by midday to $42.01. Turnover in the opening session was a a chunky 1.8 million shares.

CRH recovered from recent selling and jumped 81 cents to €20 in turnover of almost a million shares while Independent News & Media continued its recovery and was five cents higher on €2.05 in turnover of almost 2.9 million shares.

Barlo was the focus of heavy selling after its recent poor results and hit a new low of €0.21 - down two cents - as 2.7 million shares traded.

Yet another profits warning devastated Horizon and the share lost 29 cents to €0.50.

Smurfit gained two cents to €2.45 while Iona - set to announce a major contract with Boeing today - gained €1.50 to $25.50, although the share was marginally easier in the opening Nasdaq session.