Following a fall in the NASDAQ last night the ISEQ and FTSE are nursing hangovers this morning and the Dublin market is off 23 points on 5852.65.
The market was ushered on its downward path by heavyweight stock Elan, whose shares dropped 42 cents to euro 57.65, Riverdeep shares dropped 40 cents to euro 4.30 while ICG shed 20 cents to euro 7.50.
Among the financials, Anglo Irish Bank was marginally ahead one cent on euro 3.36 following positive forecasts for the year emanating from today’s a.g.m.
AIB eased ahead three cents to euro 12.93, Bank of Ireland slipped back two cents to euro 10.40 while Irish Life and Permanent added 10 cents to euro 12.57.
Food stock Glanbia dropped over 3 per cent to 0.61, while Fyffes dropped one cent to euro 1.02. Golden Vale and Kerry remain unchanged on euro 1.04 and 13.50 respectively.
Losers today include eircom off two cents on euro 2.51, Smurfit down one cent to euro 1.99 while Waterford Wedgewood shed 1.5 per cent to euro 1.26.
UK blue chips remained weak at midday in London, drifting back but holding off earlier lows, awaiting Wall Street's restart for fresh direction, with profit taking in tech issues following Nasdaq's sharp falls overnight, offsetting some bargain hunting in 'old economy' stocks, dealers said.
By 12.09 (GMT), the FTSE 100 index was 14.5 points weaker at 6,241.1, although that was above an earlier low of 6,223.8.