The Dublin market failed to derive much benefit from the storming opening session on Wall Street, with market leader AIB continuing to drift back as the takeover rumours drift away into oblivion.

In an exceedingly dull session, one of the highlights was the news that Mr Joe Moran and his fellow-directors had bought 5 per cent of IWP in the market, a move that could conceivably be a prelude to take the household products company private.

IWP is one of that large group of second-liners, who have suffered from the switch in asset allocation by fund managers, and could follow Jones private if the market does not give the IWP board the rating that they believe that the share warrants. The shares were up 5 cents on €2.05 (£1.61), almost 30 cents above the level at which the directors bought their shares.

But to show that a good set of results can work wonders, Golden Vale continued to drive ahead after its good 1998 figures and closed up 3 cents on €1.23 (£0.97) bringing its rise since last week's results to almost 20 per cent. This still is only 9 times prospective 1999 earnings.

Other second-liners to move included Barlo - up 3.5 cents to €0.735 (£0.58) while Fyffes was 2 cents easier on €2.28 (£1.80), the level at which the group has recently been buying shares in the market. Among the leaders, AIB lost 37 cents to €15.15 (£11.93) while Bank of Ireland was up 12 cents on €19.40 (£15.28). CRH was 10 cents easier on €16.20 (£12.76).