It was a thoroughly dispiriting day on the Irish market with share prices falling once again despite the huge gains in London and Frankfurt and the overnight gains on Far Eastern markets. London was buoyant in anticipation of possible cuts in British interest rates while other markets were supported by Fed chairman Mr Alan Greenspan's comments over the weekend that he no longer viewed inflation as the primary threat.

The Greenspan comments were interpreted as indicating that American rates may soon be on the way down and sent the Far East markets into paroxysms of joy with Hong Kong up 7 per cent and Tokyo up 5 per cent.

But even the 3.5 per cent rise in the FTSE left the Dublin market cold and bank stocks in particular took another hammering despite big gains for most of the British banks.

Dealers were at a loss to explain the continued selling of the banks, but one Dublin broker - thought to be Davy - had the same seller on its books as on Friday. The end result was that AIB, after opening perkily on 837p ended down 7p on the day on 815p, while Bank of Ireland, after opening at 1050p, lost 30p on the day to close on £10.20.

Smurfit - the focus of heavy selling by an overseas fund on Friday - remained under pressure with indications that last Friday's seller has not completed his business. One dealer said that it seemed that there still was an overhang of two to three million shares yet to be eliminated. The shares closed down 2p on 98p.

CRH was 8p lower on 832p but has been given a strong buy recommendation by Merrill Lynch, which has set a 12-month target of £11 for the share, still short of the £11.25 high of a few months ago. That 30 per cent fall in recent months is not justified by fundamentals and CRH is still "the sector's best major stock" says Merrill.