With a hefty fall by Vodafone Airtouch dragging the London market to its lowest level since late October, there was little to support the Irish market which drifted lower. Some technology shares finally came to a halt after extraordinary runs, although Iona continued to motor ahead and was trading at an all-time high on Nasdaq as the Irish market closed.

Domestic industrial and financial stocks were generally weaker and the banks showed no sign of staging a recovery despite the enormous ratings gap that now exists against the European sector average. AIB, however, did manage to close up seven cents on the day on €8.77 after peaking earlier at €8.83. Bank of Ireland was 10 cents lower on €6.40.

Despite positive comment from CSFB, CRH continued to drift lower and was off 25 cents on €16.95, Eircom suffered from the general weakness of telecom stocks and lost 11 cents to €4.57 although Greencore continued its rebound and was 12 cents firmer on €3.07.

Technology and quasi-technology were also mixed, but Fyffes and Independent remained firm with Fyffes up five cents on €3.90 and Independent 15 cents firmer on €10.95. ITG jumped another €1.50 to €17.50 but Horizon finally hit some minor profit-taking and was down 35 cents on €11.00.

Trintech fell €4.10 on the Neuer Markt to €100.40 but then took an absolute hammering on Nasdaq and was trading $14 lower on $90 as Dublin closed. Those who bought into the Trintech bull run will be hoping that this is just profit-taking and not a movement out of the stock by the momentum investors who have been largely responsible for driving the shares to their recent level.