The Irish market suffered along with the rest of Europe from the fallout of the failure of US legislators to approve a rescue plan for the American auto industry.
However, the Dublin market underperformed its peers. The Iseq Index of Irish shares was 95.55 points or 3.67 per cent off at 2,505.02 ahead of the close of business today.
Dealers said that there were more sellers than buyers in the market, but added that volumes were light for the most part.
AIB was down 3.42 per cent at €1.98, Bank of Ireland was off 7.37 per cent at 88 cent while Anglo Irish Bank was down just 0.79 per cent at 37.7 cent.
Elsewhere, building materials group, CRH was down 5.37 per cent at €19.39.
There were few bright spots. Food group Glanbia gained 1 per cent to close at €2.02, one of the biggest percentage gains amongst the leading and second line stocks today.
In Europe, the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index, which tracks leading stocks in 18 markets, lost 2.9 per cent to 197.98 as of 4.39 pm.
London's FTSE-100 index was down 108.34 or 2.5 per cent at 4280.35 at the close.