Weakness among the banks and the pharmaceutical company, Elan, continued to feature yesterday. But the ISEQ's 0.8 per cent decline was mostly due to profit taking in the financial sector, with the ISEQ financial index declining by 1.5 per cent, taking its cue from a 0.9 per cent fall in the FTSE 100.

Elan continued to perform poorly on the Nasdaq since last week's results although it was 33 cents ahead at €52.78 (£41.57) on the ISEQ. But, by the close of trading on the Dublin bourse, its New York price was back $4.625 to $50.36 (€47.46), an 8.4 per cent drop. Dealers said that apart from the recent disappointing results and a series of poor drugs products, the sector had suffered from over-buying and other companies such as Glaxo Wellcome, SmithKline Beecham and AstraZeneca also suffered yesterday.

AIB was back 26 cents at €15.39 (£12.12) and Bank of Ireland was 50 cents down at €18.50 (£14.57). Building material stock CRH slipped following Wednesday's 50 cents gain and shed 36 cents to close at €18.64 (£14.68) but the paper and packaging group, Smurfit, was 8 cents up at €2.44 (£1.92). Adare Printing was also up, gaining 5 cents to €7.00 (£5.51), following the trend of stocks with exposure in Britain bouncing back on hopes of an economic recovery. Grafton turned in a good performance following a "buy" recommendation from Goodbody. It was 75 cents or 4 per cent up, at €19.25, but Waterford Wedgewood shed 2 cents closing at 98 cents.

Among exploration stocks, Arcon eased back a slight 0.5 cents when it closed down from 23.5 cents to 15p sterling (23 cents). It announced that its losses increased from £3.5 million (€4.4 million) to £8.2 million (€10.2 million) for the year to December 31st. Bula was unchanged at 1.75 cents (1.38p) and Ovoca was 2 cents ahead at 43 cents (34p). Navan was also unchanged after two deals, at 93 cents (73p).