The Dublin market finished marginally lower this evening, as global markets retreated amid renewed concerns about the euro zone debt crisis.

While Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker's comments that the IMF may not release its portion of an aid payment to Greece next month spooked markets, according to traders in Dublin, the sell-off had begun before then.

Following its AGM today, pharmaceutical company Elan advanced 2 per cent closing at €6.31, continuing the upwards momentum enjoyed by the stock following yesterday's announcement that it had acquired 24 per cent of a US drug discovery company.

Index-heavyweight CRH shed 1 per cent, closing at €14.85 following a broker downgrade by Citi.

Elsewhere, airline stocks continued to stabilise as the threat from the latest Icelandic ash-cloud appeared to recede. However, the Iseq's two airline stocks failed to replicate the gains enjoyed yesterday. Aer Lingus finished down 1.2 per cent at €0.81, and Ryanair shedding 0.3 per cent to €3.45, with brokers noting that Ryanair's cautious soundings about its 2011 performance at the publication of its annual results earlier this week dampened investor interest.

DCC was actively traded, following full-year results from UK waste-management company Shanks, a company with which DCC's environmental business has significant overlap. However DCC finished 2 per cent lower at €20.60.

On the bond markets, yields on 10-year Irish government bonds hit more than 11 per cent, as concerns about the euro zone debt crisis continued.