It was another humdrum day on the Dublin market with little in the way of corporate news to have much impact and with little direction coming from international markets. After the dramatic events of January, the market seems to have settled into a torpid period which hopefully will be relieved by the flow of full-year results which begins next week with AIB's results.

Once again, London tried to persuade itself that a bid for AIB is imminent but most in the Dublin market remain highly sceptical. That scepticism was reflected yesterday in AIB shares which edged ahead 15 cents to €16.10 (£12.68). Bank of Ireland drifted 5 cents lower to €17.75 (£13.98) while First Active lost 3 cents to €4.12 (£3.24).

Industrials were the usual mixed lot, with the blue-chip of the sector, CRH, 23 cents higher on €16.00 (£12.60). Smurfit, however, lost some of its recent gains and closed down 4 cents on €1.68 (£1.32). Independent - which added Merrill Lynch and Goodbody to its collection of advisers - was 13 cents weaker on €3.25 (£2.56). Fyffes was 5 cents lower on €2.30 (£1.81) after disclosing that it bought back another 250,000 shares at €2.35. Elan was in demand on NASDAQ and was trading almost $3/4 higher on $78 3/4 (€69.53) as the Irish market closed.

There was some activity in the small cap stocks, with Unidare up 6 cents to €1.58 (£1.24) as Mr Pierce Casey disclosed that he has bought another 100,000 shares to take his stake to one million shares, or just over 5 per cent.