Wall Street's inability to recover from its overnight 190-point fall and a weak performance in London meant that that share prices in Dublin were sharply weaker. A modest fall by Telecom - now making up 15 per cent of the ISEQ - was one of the factors behind the 1.4 per cent fall in the ISEQ.

Telecom again traded in large volumes but in a narrow range and the shares finally closed down 6 1/2 cents on #4.84 1/2 (£3.82). Virtually all the leading stocks fell by varying amounts with Bank of Ireland down 6 cents on #8.89 (£7.00), CRH down 30 cents on #18.90 (£14.88), Smurfit down 8 cents on #2.58 (£2.03). Elan was 50 cents lower on #28.50 (£22.45) while Irish Life & Permanent lost 45 cents to #10.00 (£7.88).

AIB managed to hold its ground and was unchanged on #13.15 (£10.36) - boosted partly by an upgrade from CSFB which moved the bank for a "sell" to a "hold". CSFB said that the upgrading was on the valuation grounds after the stock's sharp under-performance in the past six months.

There were some sharp falls elsewhere with Kerry - one of the better performers this year - down 24 cents to #11.00 (£8.66) while continued profit-taking after its recent move to an all-time high hit Ryanair with the shares falling 55 cents yesterday to #9.75 (£7.68).

The main feature on NASDAQ was a sharp rise by CBT after well-received results. CBT shares were up over $2 or almost 9 per cent at $26 as the Irish market closed. Trinity Biotech was also marginally firmer after a good set of second quarter figures.