European shares fell nearly 1 per cent in early trade this morning as concerns about weaker first-quarter earnings grew and banking and technology stocks weighed.
In Dublin, the Iseq has opened down over 1 per cent with two of the large banking stocks, Anglo Irish and Irish Life & Permanent both among the fallers each dropping by over 3 per cent by 8.30am.
Market heavyweights; AIB, Bank of Ireland and CRH were also down in early trade, falling by more than 1 per cent.
In Europe shares in TomTom fell 12.5 per cent after the Dutch navigation device maker lowered its 2008 revenue outlook.
Banking shares eased after BNP Paribas CEO Baudouin Prot said worsening market volatility would make the company's promise of matching last year's investment banking revenues difficult.
BNP shares fell 1.7 per cent, Royal Bank of Scotland fell 2.8 per cent and Barclays dropped 3.1 per cent.
By 7.17am, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 0.9 per cent at 1,317.50 points, after gaining about 1.3 per cent in the past two sessions on growing optimism the worst of the credit crisis was over.
But worries about corporate performance gained momentum overnight as US aluminium producer Alcoa said its first-quarter profit halved from a year ago because of energy costs and the weak dollar.