The announcement that it has scaled back developments at its worldoffruit.com Internet portal gave Fyffes shares a much-needed boost yesterday. Fyffes shares closed five cents firmer on €1.07 in volume of just under 500,000 shares.

Support for Fyffes in the market is almost non-existent at the moment and even one of the group's biggest shareholders seems to have lost confidence. A disclosure by Bank of Ireland Asset Management indicated that it sold 5.5 million shares in the past week with the McCann family apparently the buyer.

Elsewhere, shares were generally marginally firmer with AIB up 10 cents on €13.06, while Bank of Ireland gained four cents to €9.82. Eircom was unchanged on €2.53 and so far has not benefited from NTL's plans to delay the roll-out of its network, a delay that Davy has described as "great news for Eircom". News that Eircom has, in effect, pulled the plug on Ebeon had no impact on the share.

Irish Continental gained 40 cents to €7.10 after its good results and upgrades. Davy has raised its 2001 earnings forecast for ICG from 21.1 cents to 21.8 cents, with 2002 forecasts increased from 23.8 cents to 25.6 cents. Dunloe Ewart - marooned at €0.40 for some time - gained three cents to €0.43 while telecoms group ITG put in a sudden surge, jumping 80 cents to €8.80 in modest turnover.

Activity in Irish technology shares was centred on Iona and Smartforce, with Iona falling $3 1/2 by midday on profit-taking after its good results. Smartforce's results were excellent and the share was trading 10 per cent higher by New York lunchtime at just over $40.