THE Irish market had a very quiet day with very little interest from overseas. Many London traders were away from their desks watching football or at Ascot, which kept the Dublin market quiet, traders said.

The bond market, however, was a little more active. The National Treasury Management Agency announced the long awaited auction of 2015 stock. The £100 million auction will be held this morning and is expected to prove popular.

Financial stocks ended marginally up on the back of slightly firmer bond markets. Bank of Ireland put on 2p to close at 437p a share and AIB added 1p to 333p while Irish Permanent also closed up a penny at 395p.

Leading industrials also saw some buying as the market recorded yet another closing high. CRH closed up 1 1/2p at 653p and traded as high as 657p earlier in the day. Smurfit put on 1p to 171p. Waterford Wedgwood also put on 1p to close at 55p.

IWP was up 5p at 500p on the back of stronger than expected pre tax profits of £21.6 million, up 13.9 per cent.

Fishers saw one of the biggest percentage rises in its share price. It was up 1 1/2p to 13 1/2p after a bullish report at the company's annual meeting.

Golden Vale continued to benefit from bullish sentiment following the removal of its chief executive last week. It closed up at 73p a share.

The benchmark five year 6.25 per cent bond closed at 97.25p to yield 7.02 per cent from 7.04 per cent a day earlier.

The 10 year bond closed at 101.07p to yield 7.69 per cent from 7.7 per cent.

Much of the focus in the market was on the £100 million auction later today. The market had been expecting an auction of around £75 million.