The Irish stock market failed to make any real progress as most of the leading shares ended broadly unchanged and overseas markets provided little inspiration.

Uncertainty over the direction of interest rates in Europe and the US held most European markets back while on Wall Street, the focus was more on the possibility of a rate increase than on strong corporate profits. Another poor performance from pharmaceutical group Elan, a large component of the ISEQ index, again weighed on the Irish market as the shares lost further ground after Tuesday's warnings of a delay in launching an anti-migraine drug for which it has the US rights. The company has said that it expects this to knock some four cents off next year's earnings.

In Dublin, the stock shed 48 cents to close at €27.00 (£21.26) while in the US, it was down nearly nine per cent at $24.75 by the time business closed in Dublin.

By contrast, CRH regained some of the ground it had lost on Tuesday following speculation in the market that it might table a bid for British aggregates group, Tarmac, leading to a fund-raising. The stock closed 13 cents higher at €18.23 (£14.36). "There's a growing feeling that there isn't a lot of credibility to the Tarmac speculation," one dealer noted.

Financial stocks had a dull day despite the announcement that Natwest intends to sell Ulster Bank, its Irish subsidiary, or float it on the stock market. AIB closed seven cents lower at €11.90 (£9.37), Bank of Ireland was unchanged at €7.60 (£5.99) while Irish Life & Permanent was down 10 cents at €9.30 (£7.32).

Industrials too were quiet, with Eircom unchanged at €3.92 (£3.09) while Smurfit was just three cents firmer at €2.45 (£1.93).