In aggregate terms the Irish market was dragged down by some of the bigger stocks such as Elan and Bank of Ireland. But this masked the fact that several smaller stocks were well bid, with some putting in big performances on the day.

Anglo Irish Bank was around 8 per cent stronger on the back of good results earlier in the day. It jumped 31 cents to $4.11 with nearly four million shares changing hands in Dublin.

Among the other good performers among the smaller stocks was Fyffes which had a good run, notching up seven cents to close at €1.33 with more than 1.7 shares traded. Independent was nine cents stronger at €1.99 on a volume of just under one million shares.

Elsewhere, DCC was quite strong on reasonable volumes, picking up nine cents to €11.74, while there was also good volume in Grafton which finished the day at €3.15, up five cents.

Meanwhile, Bank of Ireland continued its downward run, losing 35 cents yesterday to close the day at €10. This drop, combined with market heavyweight Elan, which makes up around a quarter of the Irish market, dropping back $1.30 to $49.45, helped to push the ISEQ down to 5,423.56, a drop of 51.60 points.

Other stocks which closed down yesterday included Green Property which lost nine cents and Irish Life & Permanent which drifted back five cents to €11.85.

Greencore, which had been very strong over the past week, slipped back a little yesterday, losing four cents to €2.71 on modest volumes.

Ryanair lost 23 cents to €12.52, while Waterford Wedgwood gave up some of its gains of recent days to close three cents off at €0.79.