Eircom may have continued to weaken ahead of the announcement of its results today and confirmation of the secondary offering of the KPN/Telia stake, but otherwise the market was in better shape and benefited from the better tone on European markets.

Eircom itself fell as low as €3.25 before recovering to close down 7 cents on €3.40, with dealers saying that there seemed to be some support for the shares at these levels. The other main loser on the day was Irish Life, which was down 47 cents on €8.83, its lowest level since mid-March.

Anglo Irish and First Active went in opposite directions after the collapse of their planned merger, with Anglo Irish up 10 cents to €2.52 and First Active down 12 cents to €2.05. The other financial shares were stronger, with AIB up 10 cents on €10.30 and Bank of Ireland Smurfit lost 6 cents to €2.17 as Deutsche Bank Alex Brown downgraded the entire sector, but CRH and Ryanair were stronger, with CRH up 30 cents on €20.00 and Ryanair up 35 cents to €9.35 .

Technology shares were mixed, but Baltimore remained weak, closing marginally lower in London and down over 12 per cent by midday on Nasdaq at just over $11. Trintech lost €1.65 on the Neuer Markt to €23.30, while Parthus continued to ease back on mild profit-taking, closing 3p lower in London on £1.41 sterling.