Sluggish trading in the financial markets at the Dublin Stock Exchange had mixed effects on a day which was otherwise dominated by Waterford Foods' performance, following confirmation of its merger deal. Dealers said that there was little movement, except for Waterford Foods, which closed at 177p, up 12p in two days and up 7p on the day, with the merger with Avonmore finally approved. Avonmore closed at 310p, up 3p.

But among the banks, which enjoyed comfortable gains since Monday, "there was a little bit of profit taking at the end of the week". Bank of Ireland closed at 837p, bringing it back to its Wednesday figure after rising to 839p.

Allied Irish Banks rose to 600p, and dipped to 593p, before closing at its strong opening price of 598p. Irish Life was down 8p on Thursday's sterling deal which had brought it to 373p.

However, Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Permanent, and Hibernian made slight gains. CRH saw a slight drop of 3p to 685, while Smurfit eased to 213p from 216p. However, Ryanair continued on its 12p gain on Thursday, moving a further 15p to close at 400p.

Northern Ireland Electricity announced that an employee trust bought 65,838 ordinary shares, at a price of £4.43 sterling per share, on Wednesday. Its last quoted price, on July 4th, was £4.25 sterling.