Turnover might have perked up a bit, but the Irish market remained out of sorts, with financials marginally weaker and industrials slightly firmer. The market, however, remains devoid of direction and there is little on either the domestic or international front that seems likely to stimulate any decent gains.

The biggest price movements were in some of the small-cap stocks with the basket of 10 Bula shares jumping six cents to €1.08 on expectations of developments on its Libya licences. The biggest loser was Athlone which tumbled 13 cents to 78 cents, albeit on minuscule turnover involving just 10,000 shares.

Among the leaders, Bank of Ireland lost three cents to €7.34 on turnover of 2.3 million shares, AIB was unchanged on €10.70 with 1.6 million shares dealing, while CRH was 25 cents firmer on €19.15. Reports from Australia suggest that CRH is likely to be the dominant partner with Australian group CSR in an expected £700 million (€889 million) takeover of Tarmac's business in the US.

Waterford Wedgwood was unchanged on €1.15 on hefty turnover of 2.6 million shares, while Fyffes fell back six cents to €1.50 with over one million shares trading. Green gained 25 cents to €5.65, Eircom was unchanged on €3.03, while Arnotts was unchanged on €6.75 as Setanta disclosed that it had sold 431,000 shares to take its stake down to 1.5 per cent.

Technology shares were weaker, with Parthus hit by more profit-taking in both London and New York. In London, Parthus fell 9p to £1.96 while later on Nasdaq the shares were over $2 in midday trading just below $30.