Irish shares had a mixed day as the market received conflicting signals from overseas where London shares finished higher while Wall Street suffered some profit-taking ahead of Thanksgiving on Thursday.

Full-year results from Anglo Irish Bank was the main corporate news event but dealers said the shares lost five cents to €2.35 (£1.85) despite a 56 per cent jump in pre-tax profits for the year ended September 30th. "They were a great set of numbers and were followed by upgrades all round but there just seems to be a lack of interest in second-line stocks," one dealer said. He said most of the activity remained confined to the six leading stocks and it was proving very difficult to generate interest outside of that.

AIB firmed by seven cents to €13.60 (£10.71), Bank of Ireland was unchanged at €8.50 (£6.69) while Irish Life & Permanent was down five cents at €10.50 (£8.27).

Building materials group CRH had a weak day, losing 54 cents to €18.88 (£14.87) as it reversed all of the previous day's gains. Smurfit did little, adding 1 1/2 cents to €2.595 (£2.04) while Eircom shares slipped back to €3.995 (£3.15), a loss of nine cents on the day.

Baltimore Technologies, which announced better-than-expected results, was the best performing of the technology stocks. Dealers said it broke through the £30 sterling level before eventually closing 3 per cent higher at £29.10 sterling (€46.02) in London after reporting a 63 per cent rise in third quarter revenues.