Financial shares continued to come under pressure on the Dublin market, with the two major banks sharply lower once again. Technology stocks, however, continued to climb, while some of the industrials which had suffered from the flight to the technology sector showed signs of recovery.

The remarkable slump in the banks' fortunes showed no sign of abating, with AIB down 13 cents to another 12-month low of €8.47, while Bank of Ireland also tumbled 13 cents to €6.07. Merrill Lynch has taken over from Warburg Dillon Read as AIB's London broker, but faces a stiff task in generating renewed interest in AIB shares even at their current low level.

CRH continued its recovery from recent lows, boosted by the solid results from Hanson, and was 20 cents higher on €18.20. Smurfit finally rebounded and was four cents higher on €2.62. DCC, boosted by its Fyffes windfall, jumped 30 cents to a new €9.60 high while Eircom edged two cents ahead to €4.45.

Glanbia tumbled 10 cents to €1.00 - its lowest level for almost 10 years. It was not helped by the awful results from Golden Vale's butter/ milk powder division. Glanbia is the biggest producer of butter/milk powder in Ireland and is likely to be at least as badly hit by the slump in dairy commodity prices as Golden Vale.

Among the technology stocks, Baltimore bounded ahead to near an all-time high in London, up £6.50 to £120 sterling, and was trading over $9 higher near $190 on Nasdaq as Dublin closed. Trintech was €9.50 higher on the Neuer Markt and almost $7 higher on Nasdaq on $99 7/8. Horizon recovered from recent profit-taking and gained 35 cents to €10.40. Profit-takers knocked ITG back €1.90 to €20.20.