The build-up to the holiday weekend also crept into markets where there was an unusually quiet day, apart from some profit-taking on AIB's phenomenal gains on Thursday. One broker said the slack day was "an excuse to head off early for the weekend". Other market leaders had a flat performance while worse-than-expected US non-farm payroll figures had a slight ripple effect on investor confidence.

Good demand on second-liners was reported but it was offset by seller reluctance. There were deals on just 36 companies' shares. The heaviest trading was on AIB shares changes, following Thursday's record price of 635p. The price closed down 6p at 629p. But Bank of Ireland made further gains on the previous day, moving up a further 4 1/4p to 842p. Hibernian made a strong gain of 8p to 410p, Irish Life remained unchanged at 363p while Irish Permanent was down 5p to 665p. Anglo Irish Bank was unchanged on 99 1/2p. Among the main industrials, there was some activity in CRH which closed down 1 1/2p at 680p, and Smurfit, which gained 2p at 210p. In the food sector, Waterford Foods was down 3p to 172p, while Avonmore continued to hold on to its record high of 312 1/2p. But Kerry was down 4p to 665p and Golden Vale was slightly down at 78p. Fyffes closed up 1p to 98p. Ryanair, having had an up and down week, was unchanged on 385p.