Technology stocks were the best of the Irish yesterday with Iona the star of the sector - boosted by positive market reaction to its recent second quarter results. The rest of the sector was also firm, with a growing feeling that the technology sector is in for a re-rating after the battering it has taken in the past few months.

Iona was up €9.35 on €95.25 in Dublin, but the bulk of the trading in the stock was on Nasdaq where the share hit over $88 in morning trading before easing back to trade around $83.50 at midday, up $6.50 on the overnight level. Iona is a volatile stock - even by the standards of the technology sector. The renewed support for the technology shares also lifted Baltimore, Trintech and Parthus, whose maiden quarterly results yesterday were well-received. Parthus was up 6 1/2p in London on £2.23 sterling but drifted marginally lower on Nasdaq. Also in London, Baltimore continued its recovery and was up 19p on £6.54 and was trading 25 cent higher at $19.50 by midday on Nasdaq.

Trintech jumped €1.30 on the Neuer Markt to €26.50 and was up $1.19 on Nasdaq on $24.75. Conduit, however, is finding life as a Neuer Markt company a bit of a struggle and was unchanged on its IPO price of €16.00.

In Dublin, the only decent volume was in Bank of Ireland where almost 2.2 million shares traded as the stock fell 10 cents to €6.90. Otherwise activity in the leading shares was muted, although Eircom bounced back from a €2,65 low to close up one cent on €2.71 as the interminable KPN/Telia affair drags on. Fyffes fell six cents to €1.01 in hefty trading of 2.25 million shares, and there is apparently no support for a share which recently hit a high of €3.96.