The Dublin market was described as "a little weak" yesterday by dealers, with some profit-taking by cautious investors. Once again, second-line stocks led the way, although the leaders were subject to steady trading too. Some of the selling was prompted by the continuing slump in Asia and by US President, Mr Clinton's problems.

Among the stocks doing well was Avonmore Waterford which traded up 20p to close on an impressive 300p. Dealers said the reason for the gains was that the shares were "catching up" on the recent bull run.

CRH shed 10p despite getting backing from two major London investment banks earlier this week. Dealers said the "market outperformer" rating picked up by the company was now seen as old news.

Smurfit dropped 2p to close at 198p in a pattern established since it announced poor results from its US subsidiary, JS Corp earlier in the week. Dealers said the stock seemed to be stabilising, albeit slowly.

Among the upward movers were Fyffes, which moved up 2p to close at 135p and Greencore which put on 5p to finish at 375p.

Among the main stocks dealt down were Irish Life, which lost 6p to close at 440p and Norwich Union, down 7p at 493p.

The banks all made some kind of recovery from Thursday, with AIB rising 8p to 728p, Bank of Ireland moving up 8p to 1100p and Anglo Irish recovering the previous day's 2p fall to return to 147p.