Share prices went only one way yesterday and that was downwards, until a modest last-hour rally brought the ISEQ back from a 6 per cent to a 5 per cent loss.

Dreadful corporate earnings stories, foot-and-mouth disease and a general dispiritedness left the market in poor shape and dealers believe that there may be a lot more pain before there is any recovery in share prices. One fund manager suggested it could be a year before the market sees any sustained upward movement.

The losses suffered by food and tourism-related stocks is covered elsewhere in these pages. But in other sectors, the market was a sea of red ink with financial shares being hit by the slump in British bank shares, while industrials were hit by a perceived loss of consumer confidence spreading across all markets.

At least most of the leaders recovered from their worst levels. Bank of Ireland was the heaviest financial and more than three million shares traded as they plunged to a low of €8.00 before closing down 57 cents on €8.25. AIB dealt as low as €10.00 before closing down 44 cents on €10.38, while Anglo Irish hit a low of €3.00 before ending down 20 cents on €3.10.

Vodafone's continued losses left Eircom in poor shape and the share dealt as low as €2.25 before closing five cents lower on €2.33. It is probably just as as well that CRH pitched its €1.1 billion rights issue at such a low level given the way the share has plunged in the past week - it hit a low of €15.85 yesterday before closing 67 lower on €16.30 while the nil paid rights were down 70 cents on €5.50.

Earnings downgrades and a generally negative reaction to the 2000 results knocked another 42 cents off Independent and the share closed on €2.27, while Smurfit lost three cents to €1.84.