Employment data which suggest there is no danger of another rise in American interest rates gave stock markets a boost and most of the leading Irish stocks had a good day with some decent-sized turnover. Technology stocks were also in strong demand but are likely to remain volatile.

Bank of Ireland was one of the best performers now that its DIRT liabilities have been settled and the share dealt up 21 cents to €6.78 in turnover of over two million shares. AIB rebounded after sharp falls in the past few days and was 18 cents higher on €9.38 although First Active has now given up virtually all its recent gains and closed 12 cents lower on €1.93.

Industrials were mixed with CRH slipping another 13 cents to €18.97. Ardagh jumped 31 cents to €1.61 on turnover of over 887,000 shares, Eircom recovered nine cents to €2.84 as the 1-for-25 bonus share issue was implemented while DCC continued its recent strong run with a 30 cent rise to €10.30.

Ryanair was 24 cents higher on €8.06 while Readymix was eight cents higher on €1.38.

There were strong gains across the technology sector with Iona up over $5 by midday to almost $70 after being ranked in the top third of software companies in Software magazine's "500 rankings".

Earlier Iona had dealt up €50 to €70 in Dublin although the bulk of the trading in the share takes place on Nasdaq.

Trintech was the other star among the technology shares, jumping over €2 to €23.59 on the Neuer Markt and up $2 in earlier Nasdaq trading on $22.