The Irish stock market took its tone from international markets, where concern about developments in Asia and nervousness over US-Iraq tensions dampened activity and forced most European markets off their earlier highs.
The ISEQ index of Irish shares closed 9.44 points higher at 3,666.84, just six points below last Friday's level.
"New York is up and down. The market is nervous in general and that is keeping volumes down," one equity trader said.
Bank of Ireland was in good demand after reporting bumper results on Thursday but the share price closed unchanged at 885p. Other stocks in the financial sector benefited from the good results with AIB gaining 1p to 565p while Irish Life recovered from Thursday's lows, jumping 10p to 345p, traders said.
Industrial stocks were generally rangebound in a day with few features. Building materials group CRH dipped 15p to 760p but dealers said it see-sawed in a band of 755p to 770p while Smurfit gained 5p to 185p.
Greencore again failed to break above 300p, slipping back 5p to 295p amid uncertainty about the company's strategic direction. Tullow Oil was one of the few stocks to stand out, gaining 14p to 153p.
"There are rumours around that they hope to be granted some valuable and scarce licences in Bangladesh and that has driven the price higher," one dealer said.
