The Irish market was one of the worst-performing markets in Europe yesterday, as investors took fright at the latest developments in Russia developments that only compounded the unease that the crisis in the Far East has generated over the past few weeks.

Even a steadier opening on Wall Street failed to stem the sea of red on dealing screens although there were some hopes expressed that a firm close in New York will generate a recovery this morning.

It was financial shares that took an absolute hammering and there were losses all across the financial board. AIB the clear favourite in the sector lost 28p to £11, but Bank of Ireland was 51p lower on £13.04, Irish Life lost 28p to 608p, while Irish Permanent closed down 32p on 828p. Anglo Irish continued to drift and lost 3p to 179p.

Leading industrials were also lower, but yesterday second-line stocks also lost a lot of ground. CRH, despite the attractions voiced by Irish analysts, is finding it difficult to find a floor and closed down another 20p on 850p, while Smurfit was 2p lower on 153p. Among the second-liners, good first-quarter results supported Ryanair at its overnight price of 560p in Dublin, while the Nasdaq-listed ADRs were trading $3/8 higher on $393/8.

Elan was also marginally firmer on Nasdaq at $691/2 despite the listing of another 11.9 million shares associated with the Neurex acquisition. These additional shares on the register brings Elan's market capitalisation to $7.25 billion (£5.14 billion) and the shares are well-supported at these levels.

Irish second-liners were lower across the board, but many are at levels where bargain-hunting must become a feature of the market. Avonmore Waterford lost 20p to 270p, DCC was 23p lower on 552p, while Golden Vale lost 2p to 100p and is now down almost 10 per cent since it unveiled good half-year results last week.

Greencore lost 5p to 335p, Independent fell below the 300p level and closed down 5p on 295p an awful long way from its 475p high of earlier in the year. Irish Continental was 40p lower on £10.20. Kerry lost 7p to 838p, Kingspan was 20p lower on 240p, while Marlborough the focus of some mildly negative analyst comment dropped 30p to 280p. Low oil prices took their toll on Tullow which closed down 15p on 141p, while the Far East crisis continues to take its toll on Waterford Wedgwood with the shares down 2p on 77p. Fishers was unchanged on 43p as the Northern Telecom UK Pension Fund disclosed a 3 per cent stake. Events in Russia also hit Dragon Oil, which closed down 14p on 35p in the first trade in the shares since the beginning of July.

Irish technology shares on Nasdaq were generally weaker with CBT down $2 1/2 on $56 as the Irish market closed, while Esat was down $5/8 on $35 5/8 despite tying up a three-year digital line contract with Reuters Ireland. Iona was trading $5/8 lower on $31 1/2, Saville Systems was $11/4 lower on $23 3/4 although Icon was unchanged on $29.