The overnight sell-off on Far Eastern markets sent minor tremors through stock markets in Europe, weakness that fed through to the early session on Wall Street where prices fell sharply before recovering.

Dealers said that yesterday's near 1 per cent fall in the Irish market did not involve any massive selling, although the main financial stocks took something of a beating with AIB down 8p on 566p and Bank of Ireland down 9p on 763p. AIB Investment Managers has emerged as a recent heavy seller of Bank of Ireland, with its stake falling from 5.1 per cent to below the 3 per cent disclosure level. This indicates that AIBIM has sold more than 10 million Bank of Ireland shares in the last three months.

Second-line financials weathered the weakness with Irish Life up 2p on 337p and Irish Permanent unchanged on 640p.

Industrials were also weaker and CRH lost 8p to 727p even though next week's results are expected to be good. Smurfit was 1p easier on 223p while Kerry was unchanged on 705p ahead of half-year results on Monday.

Elsewhere, there was a flurry of trading in Greencore after the announcement of Imperial Holly's bid for Savannah. The shares dealt as low as 315p before closing down 2p on the day on 318p.