Anybody who thought Eircom was going to rise in a straight line during its current bull phase learnt a sharp lesson yesterday when the share fell steeply after initially continuing to rise from its overnight level.

After rising from the overnight level of €4.70 to a high of €4.861/2, profit-takers started selling in volume and Eircom was bid down to a low of €4.37 before closing down 30 cents on the day on €4.40. Dealers believe that the shares are likely to be volatile in the days ahead, with good daily gains being quickly followed by profit-taking, at least until the corporate situation at Eircom becomes clearer.

Among the leaders, the banks continued to struggle, although Bank of Ireland managed to gain 14 cents to €6.64 while AIB drifted 11/2 cents lower to €8.801/2. First Active managed a seven cents rise to €2.37 before a late sterling deal brought it back to a €2.31 close.

The two quasi dot.com stocks, Independent and Fyffes, remained firm and DCC took advantage of the continuing strength of Fyffes to sell another eight million shares at €3.60 each. The remaining 5.2 million shares are likely to be sold in the next few days, dealers believe. Independent closed 15 cents higher on €10.10, Horizon continued its extraordinary run, dealing up another €1.25 to €10.75, while ITG bounded ahead another 43 cents to a new €14.75 high.

There was extraordinary trading in Trintech on the Neuer Markt, where the shares first soared to a high of €116.29 before losing virtually all of those gains to close on €102.50. Later on NASDAQ, the shares were trading over $4 lower around $102. Baltimore, however, seems unbeatable and was £6.75 higher on £87 sterling on the LSE and was trading almost $6 higher on NASDAQ at close on $139.