The Irish market fell slightly this afternoon, as weakness in financials and constructions stocks dragged on the index.
At 1.22pm, the Iseq was down 8.64 points to 2,909.59.
AIB fell 2.5 per cent to €1.55, while Bank of Ireland was 3.2 per cent off at €1.64. Irish Life and Permanent also suffered, though to a lesser degree, falling 0.8 per cent to €3.47.
Shares had performed strongly yesterday, as banking stocks rallied in the UK. Although AIB fell off at lunchtime and ended the day only slightly higher Bank of Ireland fared better, gaining 3.5 per cent during yesterday's session.
Meanwhile, the Dáil passed an extension to the State guarantee scheme for banks yesterday, which covers the issuing of bank bonds of up to five years.
Irish Life & Permanent shed some of the gains it won yesterday in the wake of rumours of a possible takeover by insurance giant AXA. However, the market consensus was that the rumour was unfounded and it denied by sources close to both firms.
CRH was marginally off at 0.6 per cent down to €17.49, and McInerney Holdings was down 5.2 per cent in the afternoon's trade.
At the other end of the market, Abbey Plc rose 9 per cent following its interim trading statement for the six months to October 31st 2009. The company was predicting a "dull" outlook, while it did not rule out further writedowns in its Irish operations. The company also predicted a downbeat outlook for the US, which surprised analysts, who believed the forecast was out of step with what other UK homebuilders had predicted.
Aer Lingus was flat as the company was due to hold a board meeting against a backdrop of stalled negotiations with unions on a cost-cutting plan.
Rival Ryanair rose 3.7 per cent to €3.05 as traffic statistics released yesterday were in line with expectations. The airline announced a 15 per cent rise in passengers year on year in November.