European shares ended slightly higher, boosted by oil stocks as crude rose.
Around Europe, London's FTSE 100 index gained 0.3%, while Frankfurt's DAX and Paris's CAC 40 both added 0.2%.
Among major gainers, Britain's BT Group fell 2.9% despite unveiling a £2.5-billion-pound share buyback programme.
A 2% rise in crude oil futures made oil stocks the best-performing sector within the broader European markets, with Total up 1.8%, Repsol 2.2% higher and BP ending up 2.4%.
In Dublin the ISEQ closed up 13 points at 9578.
ICG closed down 15 cent at 20.50 as the Doyle group and onefiftyone consortium said they have almost finished looking at the books and hope to shortly make an offer of €20.75 per share.
As European markets closed, US stocks fell back as signs of strength in the US job market reduced chances for an interest-rate cut, and the dollar hit a three-month high against the yen on expectations for low Japanese interest rates.
Stocks dropped after the US Labor Department said weekly first-time claims for unemployment benefits were lower than expected, overshadowing higher earnings at Hewlett-Packard and news of more takeover deals.
The Dow Jones was down 5 points, or 0.04%, at 13,482 and the Nasdaq was down 5 points, or 0.18%, at 2,542.
Earlier this morning, in Asia, the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Nikkei-225 index of leading shares dropped 0.17% to close at 17,498 points on Thursday.
