True to form, the Irish market managed to ignore interest rate cuts in Europe and Britain, and was dragged lower by weaker financial shares which ignored the market maxim that lower rates benefit banking stocks. The Irish market has a penchant for delayed reactions to overseas events and the odds are that financial stocks will move ahead tomorrow bar a sudden slump overseas.

CRH was the big star yesterday and, shaking off the downgrade from Warburg, jumped 87 cents to €17.05 as many in the market took the view that the shares were oversold after last week's profits warning. Ryanair was another star, maintaining its post-results run with a 30 cent gain to €12.30.

Markets thrive on divergent views and that was never clearer than in Waterford Wedgwood's case yesterday, where there were wildly differing reviews of the stock from Commerzbank and Morgan Stanley. Commerzbank downgraded the group to "hold" and cut its price target from €0.80 to €0.70 while Morgan Stanley - whose leveraged equity fund was involved in the rescue of the group 10 years ago - put a "strong buy" tag and a €1.48 target on the shares, more than double yesterday's closing price of €0.64.

Financials were lower across the board, with AIB down 17 cents on €10.19 and Bank of Ireland 19 cents lower on €9.39, while Irish Life & Permanent lost 10 cents to €12.30.

Fyffes gained nine cents to €1.40 and DCC was 24 cents lower on €10.36, while Kingspan gained 30 cents to €3.05.

Buying ahead and selling after its first quarter results left Riverdeep 20 cents lower on €4.15.

On Nasdaq, Iona was the pick of the Irish stocks and by midday was almost 12.5 per cent higher on $14.15.