The ISEQ made a modest comeback from the week's setbacks, gaining 0.9 per cent in thin trade ahead of the long weekend. Eircom led the way, buoyed by robust activity in the European telecoms sector including the bid by Mannesmann for British mobile operator, Orange, and positive forecasts for mobile phone makers Ericsson and Nokia.

The reduction in charges announced by Eircom's subsidiary, Eircell, combined with a series of better valuations from brokers. Eircom moved up eight cents or 2 per cent to €3.91 1/2 (£3.08).

Major financial stocks were also up slightly, with AIB gaining three cents to €11.88 (£9.36), and Bank of Ireland moving up two cents to €7.47 (£5.88). Anglo Irish closed two cents up at €2.18 (£1.72) but Irish Life & Permanent was off 33 cents at €9.45 (£7.44).

The building materials company CRH continued to attract buyer interest and it moved up 21 cents to €18.71 (£14.74).

But, after figures from Smurfit's US associate Smurfit Stone, the industrial group's price remained at €2.45 (£1.93) despite this week's buy recommendation from Warburg Dillon Read. Smurfit-Stone announced a third-quarter net loss of $16 million (€17.2 million) compared to net earnings of $8 million (€7.4 million) in the same period last year.

Among the second-liners, Abbey, the property development group, closed up 13 cents to €3.55 (£2.80), following the company's buy-back purchase of 1.7 million shares, or almost 5 per cent of the stock, mostly at €3.59. One dealer said that the buy-back would put the focus back on how smaller stocks could release value for shareholders.

Exploration stock Bula continued to see some interest following the news of its negotiations with Oilwest, the European oil refining and retailing company, but was unchanged on three deals at 0.0175 cents (1p).