For the second successive day, Eircom was the focus of heavy trading in both Dublin and London, as investors and hedge funds took punts on the outcome of last night's crucial board meeting.

Once again, the bulk of the trading took place in London. Dealers said that hedge funds were behind a large portion of the 13 million shares that changed hands on the London market. Dublin trading was also heavy, with a volume of 5.5 million shares, as Eircom eased two cents to €1.28 - still well ahead of the two public offers from eIsland and Valentia.

Elsewhere price changes were negligible, but there were solid volumes in some of the bigger financial and industrial stocks. More than 2.1 million Bank of Ireland shares were traded, as the price drifted five cents to €11.30. AIB was six cents higher on €12.90, Anglo Irish gained eight cents to €4.48, while Irish Life drifted [NO ]3 three cents lower to €13.17.

Among industrials, Smurfit continued its latest good run, hitting a high of €2.38, before closing nine cents higher on €2.33, while CRH - linked with a big investment in the Egyptian cement industry - was six cents down on €21.45.

Independent continued its good run of the past couple of weeks and dealt up 12 cents to €2.80.

Fyffes was two cents lower on €0.94 on a volume of 1.7 million shares, while Golden Vale - ahead of next week's annual meeting - was three cents lower on €1.05. Ryanair came off its best and closed 28 cents lower on €12.80.