The ISEQ index fell 24 points to 5,784 this morning as the Irish market felt the reverberations from Friday's weakness on Wall Street.
With little corporate news out today, the market drifted with little direction and trading volume remained modest in most shares. AIB fell 15 cents to euro 12.70, Bank of Ireland is off 4 cents to euro 10.26 and CRH gave up 8 cents to euro 20.0.
Eircom fell 5 cents to euro 2.55 as the European telecoms sector came under selling pressure amid reports that Deutsche Telekom is being investigated for below-cost selling in Germany. Fellow telecom ITG was also weaker, down 6 cents to euro 9.10.
London shares were trading a little higer around midday. By 12.30 p.m., the FTSE 100 index was at 6,260.5, up 4.1 points.
Trading was nervous ahead of this week's Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee meeting - which kicks off on Wednesday - with commentators expecting at least a 25 basis point cut in British rates on Thursday.