The Irish stock market shed almost 1 per cent yesterday tracking falls in London and Wall Street as concerns over US corporate earnings weighed on sentiment.

The US blue chip Dow Jones index was down 93 points by late afternoon amid nerves at the start of a week of company pre-results statements. The FTSE 100 also slumped with bank stocks showing a particularly dismal performance which was mirrored by Irish banking stocks.

AIB cut 28 cents off its shareprice to #12.57 while Bank of Ireland dropped 22 cents to close at #11.08.

Eircom continued to attract lively trade and the shareprice drifted off in the afternoon to end two cents lower at #1.28. This followed an announcement by Eircom and Valentia, a consortium headed by Sir Anthony O'Reilly, that the telecom firm's board was backing the group's offer for the former State company.

The Valentia consortium, which also has the backing of major Eircom shareholders KPN and Telia, has until June 25 to finalise the offer.

Valentia is offering a cash payment of #1.27 per share or #1.25 a share in cash plus a warrant over Valentia's share capital, a bid which would guarantee #1.32 per share after 36 months.

The race to win control of the telecoms company has boosted its share value and prompted unprecedented dealing volumes, climaxing on Friday when more than 90 million shares changed hands, about 50 times the average daily turnover.

Elsewhere Ryanair lost 51 cents yesterday to close at #11.80 while building materials group CRH shed 15 cents to close at #20.85.

Paper and packaging firm Smurfit bucked the downward trend and gained nine cents to close at #2.39.