The Irish Stock Exchange ended the day marginally stronger, up 6.97 to 5,647.63, in line with other markets.
The two big banks AIB and Bank of Ireland both recorded good two-way trading. With around two and half million shares changing hands, AIB traded as high as €12.40 before drifting back to close at €12.33, still 11 cents stronger. Bank of Ireland finished the day up 11 cents to €10.39, with one and a half million shares traded.
Despite being the subject of a number of bids, Eircom dropped back on the day. It finished five cents weaker at €2.64, reflecting weakness in Vodafone's price.
Waterford Wedgwood slipped a little on the day, coming off its good run of last week. It eased back a cent to €1.19 on a volume of half a million shares.
Smurfit remained unchanged at €2.03, despite recording good volume on the Dublin market, with 3.3 million shares traded and much interest coming from the US where Smurfit Stone reported.
CRH recovered a little on the day, picking up eight cents to close at €18.02. Also stronger on the day were Arnotts, up 30 cents from €6.70 to €7.00, IAWS which jumped 10 cents to €7.10 and Grafton which was up 50 cents from €31.50 to €32.00.
Elsewhere, Kerry drifted 19 cents to €12.39 and Ryanair dropped 10 cents from €11.00 to €10.90.
As the Irish market closed, Irish tech stocks on the Nasdaq were enjoying mixed fortunes. Trintech was ahead 4.39 per cent to $2.14, while Smartforce was up 1.32 per cent to $33.98. Iona was trading down 1.10 per cent at $38.51 and Baltimore had fallen back 3.98 per cent to $2.17. Parthus was unchanged at $13.
