The Irish market fell today as bourses across Europe slipped amid fears that last week's recovery overvalues some stocks.
The Iseq index of Irish shares was down 2.88 per cent at 2,599.34 ahead of the close of business today.
In Europe, the Dow Jones Stoxx 600, which tracks leading shares in 18 different markets, was down 1.6 per cent at 206.12 at 3.40pm.
News agency, Bloomberg reported this afternoon that national benchmark indices fell in all western European markets, barring Greece and Iceland.
London's FTSE 100 dropped 0.7 per cent, France's CAC 40 lost 2.2 per cent and Germany's Dax declined 1.1 per cent.
Bloomberg pointed out that last week's earnings season rally in the US pushed 34 per cent of stocks ahead of analysts' target prices for the year, raising concerns about the pace of recovery.
In Dublin, dealers said that the US markets were down 100 to 120 points since they opened, pulling European stocks back.
"Generally, the US has tended to rally when Europe goes home, but that does not appear to be happening today," one trader said earlier.
"This could give the markets the pull back that everyone has been looking for, and that might attract the buyers back in."
Two of the main Irish banks fell sharply as investors took last week's profits. Bank of Ireland was down over 10 per cent at 1.145 at 4.30pm. AIB was down almost 3 per cent at 1.152 at the same time, and its decline was closer to 4 per cent ahead of the close of business.
CRH had what dealers described as a difficult day, trading in the 17.30 to 17.45 range and came back to 17.46 at 4.30, a fall of 4 per cent on its opening quote.
The stock's fall had an overall impact on the market as it has the highest weighting in the index.
