CRH came to the rescue on what would otherwise have been a down day on the Dublin stock exchange.
The cement giant outperformed its international peers with a 2.4 per cent jump, and finished a few cent off its daily high at €17.82. "CRH was the standout name that kept us afloat," a broker said.
The banks' recent run of good form came to an end today. AIB was off 10 per cent at one stage, although it recovered somewhat to finish down 7 per cent at €1.34. Bank of Ireland slipped about 4.3 per cent - or 5 cent - to €1.16.
One broker pointed out that these losses were "nothing huge" compared to the upward movements in the two names last week. AIB had gained 47 per cent in the previous three trading sessions, and today's slide was attributed to a little bit of profit-taking rather than any specific news.
Irish Life & Permanent didn't escape the sell-off either, and fell 2.6 per cent, or 8.5 cent, to just over €3.14.
Insurance group FBD was one of the few stocks other than CRH to enjoy a positive session, and added 15 cent to close at €6.10.
In the airline sector, budget airline Ryanair nudged ahead by 2.5 cent and finished close to €2.52, while rival airline Aer Lingus slipped one cent to 60 cent.
Elsewhere, food stocks Glanbia and Fyffes fell about 2 and 4 per cent respectively to close at €2.65 and 40 cent.
Overall the Iseq index succeeded in moving about 6 points further ahead of the all-important 3,000 mark, and closed at 3,016.98.
Across Europe, the UK's FTSE 100 rose 0.1 per cent, while Germany's DAX was little changed. France's CAC 40 lost 0.2 per cent.
Additional reporting - Bloomberg