Settlement Date: October 17th: The leading stocks traded in reasonable volumes in Dublin as the market opened in upbeat fashion on the back of the strong performance last Friday but they were unable to make any further progress, with most content to hold on to most of their recent gains.

There was reasonable volume in the leading financials with Bank of Ireland shedding just five cents to €9.60. Dealers said the stock held up pretty well given reports of imminent news on its Abbey National bid.

"The performance of the share today tells you the market does not believe this deal is going to happen," said one trader.

AIB and Anglo Irish Bank also lost five cents each to €12.30 and €5.93 respectively, with both trading in a fairly tight range.

There was strong dealing in selected second-liners as investors went bargain hunting. Kingspan saw two million shares traded early in the day but finished unchanged on €1.55. Elsewhere in the building materials sector, Grafton also saw heavy trade with two million shares dealt as the shares rose five cents to €3.30. Their performance was reflected by CRH, which held onto its €1.15 gain from last Friday. Heiton's Holdings was the only one to lose out giving up nine cents to €2.21.

Jurys Doyle, Qualceram and IAWS moved ahead by 25, 20 and 15 cents respectively but traders said there was little or no volume in any of them.

Independent News & Media announced it had again been in the market on Friday buying 350,000 shares at between €1.25 and €1.35 to bring its buyback up to 2 per cent in recent weeks. The stock closed yesterday down three cents on €1.32.

There was some interest in Ryanair, but it gave up seven cents to €5.53.