The Iseq index of Irish shares slipped into the red by 4.30pm as it shed 9 points to 5,480, driven down by weakness in bank stocks.
Ongoing concerns about the health of the financial industry and the credit crisis hit banks across Europe and Ireland was no exception with the banks here being sold off on reasonable volumes. By 4.30 pm, Bank of Ireland was down 3.4 per cent as it shed 23 cents to €6.35, while AIB was also on the retreat shedding 28 cents to €10.13. Irish Life & Permanent gave up some of yesterday's gains as it fell back 20 cents to €9.
C&C also found itself under pressure throughout the day and at 4.30pm, the stock had lost nearly 10 per cent of its value to €4.02 with nearly two million shares traded. Analysts said an imminent launch of an advertising campaign for Scottish and Newcastle's cider brands was weighing on C&C stock.
On a day of little news flow, Elan outperformed the broader market as the stock continued to ride the wave of positive sentiment to its better than expected headline figures from phase II clinical trials of a therapy for Alzheimer's disease. It advanced around 5 per cent as it tacked on €1.01 to €20.85.
A surge in oil prices to more than $136 a barrel had a knock-on effect on Dragon Oil with the stock advancing 16 cents to €5.60.
Airline stocks were positive during the day, with Aer Lingus up 4 cents to €1.62 and Ryanair up 2 cents to €3.08 at 4.30pm.
Further afield, European stocks fell, sending the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index to the lowest in three months as analysts forecast more losses at banks, carmakers said the market was deteriorating and oil jumped more than $4 a barrel.
National benchmark indexes decreased in all of the 16 western European markets that were open. The UK's FTSE 100 slipped 1.5 per cent. Germany's DAX lost 2.4 per cent, while France's CAC40 sank 2.3 per cent.