VOLUMES on the Irish market were low again yesterday though the market was firmer, led again by the financial stocks.

A NatWest/NCB conference in Dublin was attended by a lot of fund managers and may have added to the quietness of a day on which there was very little change in the index.

London had a reasonable day and Wall Street was marginally up. More movement might follow on favourable retail sales and producer price index figures being published in the US today.

AIB was up 4p to 447p and Bank of Ireland was 5p firmer at 640p. Meanwhile, Irish Life finished down lp at 332p but there was a reasonable turnover of stock. Irish Permanent finished up 6p at 601p.

Among the industrials, Smurfit dropped a halfpenny after having rallied 2 1/2p on Wednesday. It closed at 164p, still 4p down on the 168p level it recorded before its disappointing 1996 results were published.

CRH dropped 2p to 638p, while Clondalkin dropped 10p to 590p. IWP rose 5p to 275p.

Kingspan closed up 20p at 690p, one of the very few nonfinancials to show a significant move during trading. There was a shortage of Kingspan stock on the market.

Irish Continental was another significant mover, closing at 551p, up 11p.

Golden Vale failed to recover any more ground, closing at its opening price of 60p. Another out-of-favour stock, Waterford Foods, gained 3p to close at 80P:

Kerry closed 10p down on its opening price, at 630p.

Fyffes dropped 2p to close at 104p. Greencore also dropped 2p, to close at 346p. IAWS gained 2p to close at 202p.

Independent closed at its opening price of 335p.