Volumes on the Irish market were generally light on a reasonably quiet day due mainly to the President's Day holiday in the US.

The ISEQ closed at 5,914.53, a drop of just more than 35 points from Friday's new year high. Financials fell back on the day, with AIB closing 4 cents lower at €12.10 on volumes of just under one million shares ahead of its results tomorrow.

Bank of Ireland dropped 20 cents, eventually finishing at €9.97 with less than 400,000 shares changing hands. Irish Life & Permanent retreated 17 cents to €12.90. First Active was unchanged at €2.40, while Anglo Irish picked up one cent to €3.72.

Eircom closed at €2.47, a drop of 9 cents on the day, dragged down by Vodafone, which hit its lowest level since December 1998, and a general malaise in European telecom stocks which saw the FTSE Telecom Index reach a 52-week low.

Smurfit was also down on light volumes ahead of its results today. It fell back 3 cents to €1.97.

Other losers on the day included Ryanair, which ended the day 35 cents weaker, finishing at €12.10; Arnotts, which retreated 18 cents to €6.80 and Green Property, which dropped 15 cents to €7.80.

CRH regained some of last week's losses. It picked up 13 cents to close at €19.45 with just under 200,000 shares changing hands.

Also up were Grafton which gained 15 cents to €29.65, Galen which rose 9 cents to close at €15.10 and Rapid Technology which advanced 10 cents to €1.70.