It may have been one of the thinnest trading days on record, but yesterday's truncated session in Dublin at least meant that the ISEQ closed above the 5,000 level and ended the year marginally in positive territory. At last night's close, the market was also over 12 per cent above its end-October low for the year.

Much of that recovery in the final quarter is down to improved performances by the leading industrial stocks. CRH, however, gave up 11 cents to end 1999 at €21.40 (£16.85). Eircom was better-bid and ended 13 cents higher on €4.25 (£3.35) while Smurfit gained five cents to €3 (£2.36) and should go better in the new year on the back of planned price increases.

Leading financial shares remained out of favour although AIB edged four cents higher to €11.32 (£8.92) while Bank of Ireland was unchanged on €7.90 (£6.22). The biggest gainer on the day was Rapid Technology which leapt €1.45 to a record high of €4.40 on the back of its planned link-up with IBM on a product for store checkouts. In the space of a month, Rapid has risen by 500 per cent and is now valued at more than €100 million.

Elsewhere, Independent closed the year on a positive note with a 16-cent gain to a new high of €6.51 (£5.13). Technology stocks remained in favour with Baltimore up 112p to £51.38 sterling in London while Trintech jumped €2.58 on the Neuer Markt to €53.65. Esat eased back towards $93 in early trading on Nasdaq but is still well above Telenor's offer price and clearly anticipates a higher offer.