MARKET REPORT:THEY QUICKLY dubbed it the St Paddy's Day massacre and Anglo Irish Bank had a full magazine emptied into it yesterday morning as the market digested the rescue of Bear Sterns by the US authorities over the weekend.

Heavy selling in Asian markets set the tone and Dublin, in line with other European markets, fell heavily on opening.

It was not until New York opened in a more measured fashion that the market started to find some sort of level.

However, Dublin still closed down 4.64 per cent, earning it the unofficial title of being Europe's worst-performing market, while a similar garland was thrown to Anglo Irish Bank, which closed down 15.23 per cent at €15.23

At one stage, Anglo had been down 22 per cent at €6.30, but bounced back above €7.00 quite quickly.

The average price paid for the 14 million shares traded in Dublin yesterday was around this level too, dealers said.

Short sellers and the exit of some long-only hedge funds from the stock for technical reasons conspired with Bear-Stern-inspired momentum to drive Anglo down.

The other banks fared considerably better, declining more or less in line with the UK sector.

Bank of Ireland was 4.65 per cent at €8.61.

AIB was off 6.07 per cent at €12.16 and Irish Life & Permanent fell 4.69 per cent at €9.90.

Ryanair fell 5.66 per cent to €2.718 as oil hit another record high of over €111 per barrel.

Aer Lingus fared better, down only 1.69 per cent at €2.015.

A poor set of results from Wolseley was seen as the trigger for weakness among construction stocks.

CRH was down 1.69 per cent at 22.66, while Grafton fell 1.8 per cent to €5.45. McInerney fell very heavily to €10.16, a decline of 10.16 per cent.

Settlement date: March 19th