Ryanair was once again the star of the Irish market with heavy demand driving the shares ahead. A whole series of earnings' upgrades boosted demand for the shares and analysts now have price targets between €13.50 and €14.50 for the shares. Ryanair closed 41 cents higher on €11.93.

AIB's trading statement contained few surprises. The shares fell sharply to €10.40 immediately after the announcement before closing up nine cents on €10.84. Other financial shares were firmer on interest rate cut hopes, with Anglo Irish up two cents to €3.50, Bank of Ireland up five cents on €9.90, while Irish Life & Permanent was nine higher on €12.19.

The heaviest trading was in Independent News & Media, which edged three cents higher to €1.60 - helped by a 750,000 share buyback by the company at €1.57 each. CRH was seven cents firmer on €16 but Heiton tumbled 25 cents after a profits warning to €2.25 on turnover of more than a million shares. The fall in the share price had led to renewed speculation that 23 per cent shareholder Grafton may go back into the market for Heiton shares. Smurfit dealt up five cents to €2.35.

Datalex was unchanged on €0.43 after it emerged that US giant EDS had become a 7 per cent shareholder after buying Swissair offshoot Atraxis. Datalex reports third-quarter results today but most eyes will on the group's trading statement rather than figures. Solid third-quarter results are expected from software group Riverdeep, which was up 45 cents on €4.30 in Dublin and which was trading $1.59 higher on $23.05 in midday Nasdaq trading. Iona, however, gave up some of its recent gains and was trading $1.14 lower on $12.36, while Parthus was down 27 cents on $6.55.