The overall market was out of step yesterday with the main financials which continued to notch up gains.

Bank of Ireland outperformed its main rival, closing up 20 cents to €8.10 (£6.38), while AIB was up 16 cents to €11.86 (£9.34).

One dealer said Bank of Ireland was "leading the way" over the past couple of days because it was cheaper on a relative basis, both to AIB and its European counterparts.

The ISEQ, however, was down 0.2 per cent in anticipation of a decision on US interest rates, and the Federal Reserve's decision to leave short-term interest rates unchanged may provide some cheer today.

Among other financials, Irish Life & Permanent eased back 20 cents to €10.80 (£8.51) in profit-taking after recent gains on the strength of it being a certain bidder if Ulster Bank comes up for sale. Eircom continued its see-saw performance, shedding more gains to finish down six cents at €4.05 (£3.19).

Otherwise, Anglo Irish shed two cents to €2.30 (£1.81) and Hibernian was down 20 cents to €7.20 (£5.67). CRH put in a strong performance, posting a 45-cent gain to close at €18.95 (£14.92) with foreign interest, apparently unaffected by the current controversy over the Ansbacher deposits.

Smurfit was back six cents to €2.72 (£2.14) amid sectoral weakness, but Greencore gained seven cents to €2.92 (£2.30) in good volumes.

Recruitment consultancy group Marlborough hit an intra-day low of €1.50, a drop of 23 per cent, amid fears of the impact of the entry of Manpower, the US company, to the market. Dealers said they were surprised the €1.50 bid had been accepted, and the stock closed five cents off on the day at €1.90 (£1.50).