Financial stocks, and AIB in particular, continued to come under the cosh on the Dublin market yesterday - and even a bullish report on the sector by NCB's new banking analyst John Kelly failed to stimulate any support for shares which, in the case of the big two, are trading at a two-year low.

AIB - identified by the NCB analyst as an interesting merger partner for a capital-rich overseas partner - slumped 37 cents to €9.50 with dealers reporting a large line of stock going through the market at €9.40. Bank of Ireland was firmer in early trading and hit €7.15 before succumbing to the sectoral malaise and closed down two cents on €6.98.

Most industrials were firmer with modest gains in most cases. But market debutant Horizon continued its extraordinary recent run and jumped another 80 cents to a new high of €7.10. This means that Horizon has risen 73 per cent since the start of the year, gains more typical of NASDAQ than the dull old Dublin market. Good results from Smurfit Stone failed to boost Smurfit which eased back five cents to €3.10. Otherwise, industrials were generally firmer with CRH regaining 27 cents to €19.77 while Eircom closed up three cents on €4.23 after hitting €4.28 in earlier trading. Fyffes also recovered after recent profit-taking and jumped 12 cents to €2.70 while Independent was 12 1/2 cents higher on €8.00.

Providence was the latest of the explorers - after Ovoca, Bula and Celtic - to enjoy a run and dealt up from 2 7/8 cents to 3 3/4 cents. On NASDAQ, Trinity Biotech continued its good run after the recent FDA approval and was trading 16 cents higher on $3.41 as Dublin closed. Elan was also firm while Trintech bounced ahead over €5 to €65.05 on the Neuer Markt in a follow-up to Friday's big gains on NASDAQ.