A flat day's trading which saw the Irish Stock Exchange easing back by 0.137 per cent in profit-taking was in keeping with international markets yesterday. With New York slowing down in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday, other bourses, including the ISEQ and the Footsie, took their cue and followed suit.

In Dublin, the financials had a mixed day, with AIB eased back 10p, closing at 1040p and Irish Life down 5p to 595p from 527p sterling. Financial stocks which stayed marginally ahead were Bank of Ireland up 2p on the day at 1402p, and Irish Life's potential partner, Irish Permanent, up 10p at 945p.

Anglo Irish Bank notched up 2p from 179p on the back of Tuesday's announcement of a 49 per cent rise in profits to £45.1 million.

Smurfit was back 2.5p from 135p although dealers noted the market had generally accepted the Smurfit Stone rationalisation plan, announced on Tuesday. Further consolidation in the industry was evident yesterday after the EU cleared the merger of the Swedish forestry group, Stora AB, and Finland's Enso Oy. CRH, in twelve deals, shed 15p, closing at 1045p, but DCC, the industrial holdings company showed some upward movement, up 20p to 605p on speculation of an impending deal in Britain. Irish Continental Group was up 10p at 835p on foot of recognition that it is undervalued, one dealer said.

There was also some interest in IWP yesterday after it announced an 11 per cent increase in first-half profits to £11.9 million and a £4.5 million restructuring plan for its personal care division because of Russian woes. This will result in factory closures in Britain and Belgium.

The stock closed 5p down at 215p but, on just one deal, was not under any pressure. One dealer said that although there was a revision of profit forecasts from under 30p per share to 27.5p on average, he did not think there would be any undue pressure on the share price.