Trading in the Irish market yesterday showed weakness across the board after a week of relative strength. The market finished down 52.91 to end the day at 5,878.61.

Most big stocks suffered, with the decline in stocks sectoral rather than company-related.

DCC bucked the market trend on the back of good results, finishing quite ahead of the market. It ended the day up 45 cents at €11.25. The other big gain on the day was made by Diageo, which closed 43 cents firmer at €11.92

Elsewhere most stocks were trading weaker. CRH finished weaker on the back of a profits warning for UK building materials group Hanson, slipping 40 cents on the day to finish at €17.10

Also dropping back was Ryanair, which ended the day under the €11 barrier. It eventually finished at €10.87, down 29 cents.

Elan, Datalex and Grafton all recorded substantial drops on the Irish market by the end of the day. Elan lost 70 cents to finish at €59.70, Datalex dropped 40 cents to €6.25 and Grafton ended 50 cents down at €23.75.

The two big banks also saw their share prices retreating slightly. AIB was down two cents at €13.08 and Bank of Ireland six cents to €9.17.

Small cap companies drifted amid little sign of investor interest. Tullow, Fyffes and Irish Continental were all weak, continuing the trend from Friday when all three were removed from the MSCI Ireland index. While Irish Continental finished the day unchanged, Tullow dropped nine cents to €0.97 and Fyffes finished four cents down at €0.79.

With the Nasdaq trading nearly 5 per cent down as the stock exchange closed, Irish tech stocks were affected. Baltimore and Iona were trading down, but Trintech was up 8.5 per cent to $8.75.