More bad news as major American technology companies Dell and Lucent left markets in a soggy situation and the positive impact of recent interest rate cuts in the US and UK have now worn off.

There were a couple of exceptions to the downward drift and Anglo Irish Bank continued its strong performance with a two cents jump to a new high of #3.75. The other financial shares were mixed with AIB down 35 cents on #12.18 and Bank of Ireland eight cents lower on #10.21. Irish Life, however, was seven cents higher on #12.75.

The continued weakness in the Vodafone share price and poor sentiment towards the sector left Eircom down seven cents on #2.56 after some sizeable trading. CRH fell 40 cents to #19.60, Smurfit was unchanged on #2.04 while among second-liners Power Leisure jumped 30 cents to another new high at #3.60 while Kingspan was 13 cents higher on 4.40.

The extraordinary departure of chairman Bernie Cahill had no impact on Greencore, which was unchanged on #2.85. Ryanair was also unchanged on #12.26 after the successful placing of 10 million new shares and three million shares held by chief executive Michael O'Leary at #11.60.

The oversubscription of the placing suggests the over-allotment option of one million new shares and another one million shares owned by Mr O'Leary will be exercised by the underwriters.