Dealers reported a lacklustre session on the stock exchange yesterday as traders waited in the sidelines for expected interest rate announcements in the US and Germany. One dealer said the session had barely paid for the lights after the thin volume of trading.

International buoyancy on the back of positive US employment figures failed to have any significant impact in Dublin, although there was some pick-up in trade reported during the afternoon. The financials carried the most impact yesterday with profit-taking seeing AIB slip back 7p to 964p, Bank of Ireland down 25p to £14.10 and Irish Life losing 8p to 635p. Irish Permanent was down 25p to 930p. However, Anglo Irish Bank, which posted good results this week, was down just a marginal 1p to 204p. "Banks are quite soft across Europe at the moment," one dealer said. CRH also saw some interest, closing up 3p at £10.20, the same price it opened at this week before it announced the $60 million US acquisition of M.A. Segale's assets.

Ahead of results on Monday, DCC was up 15p to 680p, and one dealer said that Bank of Ireland's results on Thursday might inject the required stimulus to the market.

Among the exploration companies, Arcon International saw some further interest after its strike ended and it climbed another 1 1/2 p to 34 1/2p after a 3p rise on Thursday. Elsewhere, Waterford Wedgwood saw two deals to close down 2p at 121 1/2p,