Markets were presented with conflicting economic signals from the United States yesterday, where a sharper-than-expected rise in the jobless figures were followed by better-than-expected consumer confidence data. On balance, analysts now believe the Federal Reserve may order another quarter-point cut in interest rates and that should benefit markets.

Given the sharp fall in London and some other markets, Dublin emerged relatively unscathed. There was some sizeable trading in some of the larger capitalisation stocks, particularly AIB, Bank of Ireland and Smurfit. AIB initially traded as high as €12.91 before easing back to end 13 cents lower on €12.75, while Bank of Ireland drifted seven cents lower to €10.48.

Among the industrials, more than three million Smurfit shares traded as the stock lost two cents to €2.50. Elan was trading 67 cents higher above $45 by midday on the New York Stock Exchange, while CRH was 20 cents higher on €18.80.

Among second-line stocks, Green eased two cents to €6 as Fidelity disclosed that it sold 315,000 to take its stake down to 5.9 million shares or 5.7 per cent of the total. Fyffes gained three cents to €1.39 while Grafton was 10 cents higher on €3.30. Independent News & Media was boosted by the shareholder go-ahead for APN's bid for Wilson & Horton and gained four cents to €2 while United Drug continued to benefit from this week's excellent results and jumped 50 cents to €14.60 - albeit in very small volumes.

Iona was the star of the technology stocks and more than 1.1 million shares had traded by midday on Nasdaq as the share jumped almost 8 per cent to $22.39.