After a positive start, the Iseq slipped marginally in and out of positive territory for most of the morning in lacklustre trading before turning negative for the remainder of the day.
Taking its lead from most other European markets, the Iseq was down by more than 1 per cent or 62 points at 5,563 by 4.30pm this afternoon.
On a day with no real news flow, volumes were light across the board.
One of the biggest losers on the day was low-fares airline Ryanair which was trading down 4.6 per cent by 4.30pm. The stock shed 15 cents to €3.10 on the back of higher oil prices and a downgrade by Goldman Sachs earlier in the morning.
Aer Lingus, which was also downgraded from buy to sell by Goldman Sachs, however, managed to buck this trend and by 4.30pm it has 4.3 per cent stronger at €1.57.
Elsewhere, it was a mixed bag for financial stocks with Bank of Ireland turning in the worst performance as it shed 19 cents to €6.84 with around 1.5 million shares traded. Irish Life & Permanent had a better day as it tacked on 20 cents to €9.72 on light enough volumes. Anglo Irish Bank was also 1.2 per cent stronger at €7.04, while AIB was flat at €11.22.
Other stocks under pressure were Kerry, which was down 1.5 per cent at €19.79 on very thin volumes, while construction heavyweight CRH, which had traded at more than €20 at one stage, was 25 cents off at €19.80 as a number of sellers came into the stock late in the day. Smurfit was 2.3 per cent weaker at €5.23 with few shares traded.
Kingspan provided one of the few positives on the day as it added on 13 cents to €6.51 by 4.30pm.
European stocks fell for the first time in three days as concerns deepened that higher raw material costs will erode earnings for airlines and food companies, while a report signalled further weakening in the US economy.
National indexes retreated in 11 of the 17 western European markets that were open.
The UK’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1 per cent, Germany’s DAX fell 0.5 per cent, as did France’s CAC40.