A late afternoon rally helped promote Dublin's ISEQ into positive territory this evening, closing up 2.56 points to 5043.08.
Although some of the financials took part in this rally, overall the sector was mixed.
AIB closed up 16c to €13.16 and Bank of Ireland was steady at €10.99.
Irish Life & Permanent added 8c to €13.70 and Anglo was a faller, down 16c to €12.93.
Shares in Jurys Doyle hotels fell 3c to €10.60 following the sale of one of its Limerick hotels today for €9.75m.
Gresham Hotels added 2c to €1.33.
Elan shares dipped 25c to €6.95 ahead of its fourth quarter and full year results on Wednesday.
E-learning company Thirdforce was steady at €0.35. The company said today it has bought digital television production company AV Edge for just over €500,000.
Building materials giant CRH shed 7c to €16.90 amid reports that it is considering buying a 41% stake in Portuguese cement producer Secil.
Fellow builder McInerney was up 15c to €5.30 ahead of tomorrow's full year results for the 12 months to the end of December 2003.
Following an upbeat trading statement last month the company is expected to announce robust figures for the year.
Food company IAWS was up 10c to €9.65 today and plastics and radiator group Barlo was busy, adding 3c to €0.41 with over 1.5m shares traded.
Elsewhere in Europe markets were quiet enough as the US stock market was closed for the President's Holiday.
The FTSE100 closed down 3.9 points to 4408.
Vodafone group was down 3.5p, or 2.57%, to £1.32.5 as investors waited to hear if the mobile phone service provider has bid for US rival AT&T Wireless.
In Frankfurt the Dax closed up 0.33% and in Paris the CAC closed up 0.79%.