Another dull and dreary day on the Dublin market, with little impetus coming from overseas and little in the corporate news on the day to drive the market one way or the other. After the hustle and bustle of the first weeks of the year, markets seem to have settled into a cautious phase, with many still wary of making any sizeable commitment while emerging markets remain so unsteady.

The First Maryland results contained nothing of any great note to drive the AIB share price, and with the market continuing to ignore the British financial media's efforts to get Deutsche Bank to bid for AIB, the Irish bank drifted 20 cents lower to #17.15 (£13.51). The bid speculation on AIB is by now purely a London phenomenon, with the Dublin and Frankfurt markets paying little heed to the purported Deutsche bid for AIB.

Other financials were mixed, with Bank of Ireland 11 cents higher on #20.20 (£15.91), Anglo Irish up 5 cents on #2.65 (£2.09), Irish Permanent down 10 cents on #14.60 (£11.50) and Irish Life unchanged on #8.70 (£6.85).

The results from Powerscreen confirmed the transformation in the company's fortunes, but with the shares falling 5p (#0.07) to 1201/2p sterling (#1.73) in London, investors are yet to be convinced. At this sort of price and with the business having been cleaned up and the debt slashed, Powerscreen must be a potential take-over target, as a forward p/e of little more than six is an extremely low rating for even a company with Powerscreen's troubled history.