THE Irish stock market fell by almost 2 per cent in heavy trading, after the 3 per cent overnight fall on Wall Street and subsequent falls on stock markets all over the world. Most of the weakness in Dublin was concentrated on the higher liquidity stock and all of these, with the exception of Smurfit, fell sharply.

The second quarter results from JS Corp were in line with forecasts and the absence of any unexpected bad news allowed Smurfit 46 per cent owner of JS Corp to buck the downward trend and close down just 2p on 162p. CRH, the other major industrial stock, was not so lucky and the weak British market, together with the continuing fallout from the NatWest sell recommendation, meant that CRH fell another 17p to 575p.

At this level, CRH is almost 12 per cent off its high of a few months ago and it is difficult to see why the share should have been sold down so aggressively in such a short period of time. Few of the fundamentals have changed and the NatWest view of the share is not universally shared by other houses.

There was lower volume in financial shares but that did not prevent the two big banks being marked down sharply, with AIB down 7p on the day on 306p, while Bank of Ireland was 13p lower on 402p. AIB's First Maryland subsidiary reports second quarter figures today and these should act to underpin the share price unless there are some nasty surprises.

Otherwise, trading was low with a lack of liquidity preventing any major losses among the second liners. Irish Life, however, continues to under perform the British life sector and the possibility of industrial action has added to investors' nervousness. Irish Life shares closed down 6p on 227p.

The co-op vote on going below 51 per cent had little impact on Kerry, which closed down 10p on 600p. The rump of the Independent rights is expected to be placed this week the shares were unchanged yesterday on 290p.

Golden Vale lost 9p from its overnight sterling price and closed on 61p, with the share holding few attractions for investors other than the possibility that the group may become a takeover target.

Greencore was down 7p on 310p while Tullow trading ex-rights was trading on 8p, from 89p, with the nil paid rights closing on 5p sterling.