DESPITE another day of strong gains on international markets, share prices in Dublin struggled to make any advance and the index closed up only fractionally on the day. The only share to make any appreciable gain was CRH which added 6p to 610p after being oversold last week.

Among the financials, there was some sizeable sterling denominated trading in Bank of Ireland and the share closed on 504p sterling from the overnight 502p.

AIB drifted 1p weaker on 389p, while Irish Life - one of the heaviest traded stocks of last week - was 2p higher on 262p. Irish Permanent was lp higher on 478p.

Second liners were mixed but Adare half year results were well ahead of market forecasts and the share firmed 7p to 562p, As a result of the good half year, Goodbody has increased its full year earnings forecast for Adare from 55.1p to 60p per share.

Anglo Irish Bank was up 1p to 73p ahead of full year results today. Elsewhere, Avonmore was unchanged on 170p as the group announced plans to equalise the A and B shares, a move that will increase its weighting within the ISEQ from 0.65 per cent to over 1.5 per cent.

Independent was unchanged on 300p, Smurfit drifted 2p lower to 163p, while Waterford Wedgwood was 1 1/2p lower on 77p.

Gifts were marginally firmer in steady trade, but most attention was focused on today's British budget. Prices rose by between 20p and 30p and the five year benchmark stock closed on a yield of 5.87 per cent while 10s closed on a 6.58 per cent yield.