After the brief return to Stone Age trading, dealers were happy to have Xetra back in operation yesterday. Turnover, however, remained low with the only decent-sized trading in Bank of Ireland where there was sizeable dealing in both Dublin and London.

After its hefty gains in September and early October, Bank of Ireland has come in for some hefty profit-taking in the past few days and at yesterday's close of €8.16 the shares are down 10 per cent on last Friday's close of €9.06. Recent downgrades and a feeling in some quarters that the shares had gone too far too fast are behind the current weakness.

AIB, however, managed a six-cent gain to €11.69 while Irish Life was also in the black, closing five cents higher on €11.30 as Merrion repeated its buy recommendation on the stock.

Among the industrials, CRH was unchanged on €17.76 while Eircom recovered two cents to €2.45. The various stake-builders in Dunloe Ewart were out of the market yesterday with just 874,000 shares changing hands as the stock gained a cent to 47 cents. ITG was 10 cents lower on €9 despite its windfall gain on the sale of some of its Orbiscom shares, Marlborough dropped 50 cents to €1.80 in small volume as one investor apparently lost patience with the supposed takeover approach.

In New York, profit-takers moved into Elan after it hit a $60 high on Tuesday and the share was trading over $2 lower by midday yesterday in heavy volumes. Best performer of the Irish stocks was Trinity Biotech which was up over 21 per cent by midday on $3.50 ahead of third-quarter results in the next couple weeks.