Settlement Date: October 21st: Irish shares lost 1 per cent yesterday, unwinding some of their recent gains, as international stock markets turned lower.

Weakness in the international banking sector affected the Irish financial shares, most of which ended lower. AIB finished 30 cents down at €12.20 while Bank of Ireland, having traded as high as €10.39, ended the day at €9.93, a drop of 17 cents.

Bank of Ireland management are still trying to drum up support for their proposed merger with Abbey National, although dealers said the balance of probability was that it would not go ahead. Irish Life & Permanent also closed lower, down 10 cents at €12.00.

Waterford Wedgwood traded in good volume, with 2.4 million shares changing hands, although the stock closed unchanged at €0.35.

Broker Davy said that at these levels it is oversold, given that it offers a dividend yield of 8.8 per cent.

However, NCB is less upbeat and has lowered its estimates for the company for the years to March 2003 and 2004 following recent weak sales trends from some of the large US department store groups and weaker sentiment in the German market.

Jurys Doyle was another feature on the day, losing 5.75 per cent of its value or 40 cents to close at €6.55 after brokers downgraded their forecasts for the group, citing uncertainty about the outlook for its corporate business.

Some 3.2 million shares in Independent News & Media traded in the wake of the recent trading statement from its Australian subsidiary APN. The shares edged down two cents to €1.28.

Iona lost 10 cents to €2.10 in Dublin in the wake of third-quarter results. while it was down by 5 per cent on the Nasdaq by the Irish close.