Irish shares lost nearly a percentage point in modest volume as a lack of corporate news and a flat performance by most international bourses meant there was little to inspire the Dublin market.
"Some shares were attracting interest earlier in the day but the market just ran out of steam and most of the leading stocks closed lower," one trader said.
The financial stocks, which rallied by more than 2 per cent on Thursday, gave up some of their gains. AIB shed 10p to £10.15, Bank of Ireland lost 5p to £14.10 and Irish Permanent shed 10p to 835p.
Irish Life, which is in the middle of a controversy over "churning" - replacing a customer's existing life policies with new policies for the sole purpose of generating commission for the sales team - dropped 18p to 637p.
Irish Life has denied the allegations, made by an unnamed former employee.
Industrials fared little better than financials with CRH down 15p at £10.15, Waterford Wedgwood off 3p at 94p and Smurfit unchanged on 210p.
A number of second-line stocks also drifted lower, among them IWP which tumbled 15p to 415p, Jurys Hotel Group, which was down 20p at 600p and Kingspan, which lost 5p to 290p.
Among the exploration stocks, Kenmare reported a pre-tax loss of £1.8 million for 1997 and said it was continuing to review exploration projects and acquisition opportunities worldwide. The share price was unchanged at 10.25p sterling.
