After the early hiatus when the profits warnings from Sema sent technology shares tumbling, there was a strong recovery in later trading and especially after bargain-hunters moved into the New York market and drove the Nasdaq sharply higher.

In Dublin, however, the main focus was on financial shares and both AIB and Bank of Ireland saw some chunky trading as both shares made good gains. Almost 2.5 million shares traded as AIB gained 15 cents to €12.72 while nearly two million Bank of Ireland shares traded as the share jumped 38 cents to €9.00.

Otherwise there was no great action in Dublin, but Fyffes - which has traded in size both on the way up and the way down - was active once and more than 2.2 million shares traded as the share recovered a cent to 73 cents.

Athlone Extrusions was three cents firmer on 78 cents - Irish Life & Permanent has been a recent seller of the stock, unloading 770,000 last week to take its stake down to 2.26 million shares or 4.9 per cent of the total.

James Crean managed to recover six cents to 28 cents, CRH drifted 15 cents lower to €16.15 while telecoms group ITG continued to weaken and lost 31 cents to €6.85 although trading in the stock was very low involving no more than 1,366 shares. The settlement of the pilots' dispute helped Ryanair to regain 12 cents to €10.52.

The strong performance in the shortened Nasdaq session allowed some of the Irish technology shares to recover recent losses. Iona was up more than 12 per cent while Trintech was stronger on both the Neuer and Nasdaq but still a long way off the high of earlier this year.