AIB tumbling and technology stocks soaring continued to be the main features of trading in Irish shares yesterday, and there seems no sign of any change in that pattern in the week ahead especially with many in the market believing that Baltimore will have some corporate announcement to coincide with next week's results.

First the bad news. AIB went from bad to worse but at least managed to end the day on €8.18, above its low point of €8.10 but still 29 cents off its overnight level. Bank of Ireland managed to gain 12 cents to €6.19 but few in the market have much belief that these shares will recover much in the short term either.

But the e-commerce stocks rebounded from recent profit-taking and Trintech rose €8.45 on the Neuer Markt to €110.45 and continued to move ahead on Nasdaq where it was trading almost $10 higher at the Dublin close on $106. In frantic trading in London, Baltimore soared to a high of £143 before profit-takers brought the stock back to a close of £122.50 sterling, up £3.50. On Nasdaq, the shares were up almost $8 at the Dublin close at $200.

Industrial stocks were generally firmer with CRH seven cents on €18.27 and DCC up 40 cents to a new high of €10.00. Glanbia, however, fell further and was down two cents on a new 10-year low of €0.98. Ryanair was some buying interest and dealt up 40 cents to €12.70 while ITG recovered from profit-taking after the recent big gains and was up 80 cents on €21.00.

The best Irish performance of the day came on Nasdaq where Trinity Biotech was up almost 13 per cent in midday trading on $4 5/8, almost three times its price at the turn of the year. Elan, now the biggest Irish public company was marginally easier.