The ISEQ-index of Irish shares ended a dismal day on the market floor with points plummeting 163.04 points at 8730.96.
It was a bad day for the financial big guns with Allied Irish Bank leading the negative trend dropping 78c to €19.57. Irish Life and Permanent fared just as badly down 68c to €18.07. Anglo Irish Bank did slightly better, down 29c to €14.11.
Elsewhere in the construction sector, Kingspan suffering the biggest loss, down 45c to €18. Not far behind was Grafton down 35c to €9.80 with CRH falling 24c to €33.21.
The slow performance was matched across the trading floor with IAWS the worst performer within the food sector dropping 50c to €15.30. Kerry Group were down 12c to €19.90 and Fyffes dropped a modest 2c to 76c.
Glanbia was the only food giant to make a slight gain of 10c to €4.05.