A modest recovery on international markets failed to lift the pall of gloom that has enveloped the Irish stock markets and most of the leading industrial and financial shares were lower once again. While a number of market players believe that some Irish stocks are now looking like good value, one fund manager told The Irish Times that the banks might need to fall another 10 per cent before they would become good value against their British and continental peers.

The banks may not have come under the same selling pressure as in the past week, but AIB still closed down eight cents on €9.20 while Bank of Ireland was five cents lower. Irish Life lost 24 cents to €8.80, First Active lost two cents to €2.03, while Anglo Irish was one cent lower on €2.22.

A bullish note from Morgan Stanley Dean Witter failed to stem the profit-taking in CRH and the shares lost another 17 cents to €19.23. The broker has upgraded its price target for CRH from €23 to €25 and put the share on its "strong buy" list.

Smurfit continued to lose ground, in line with the US packaging sector, and closed five cents lower on €2.83. Even though most of London's gains were down to demand for telecom shares, Eircom had a poor day and was down six cents on €4.02.

Fyffes was the star of the day, jumping 18 cents to a new high of €2.80 while Ryanair - described by Dresdner Kleinwort Benson as being "in a class of its own" in the airline sector - jumped 37 cents to €12.50.

ITG eased 15 cents to €11.60. Elsewhere James Crean sank five cents to a new low of 30 cents.

On overseas markets, Trintech and Baltimore remained the favourites, with Baltimore up £4.50 to £68.75 in London while Trintech was €2.20 higher on €62 on the Neuer Markt.