Market report: The Christmas festivities rarely excite the market and the Dublin exchange provided no exception to this rule in thin holiday trading yesterday. "We're functionally sitting here all day," said one dealer.

With the bulk of trading was in financial stocks, the ISEQ index rose 32 points to close 0.44 per cent higher at 7,312.82.

The only significant corporate news to break on the day was IFG Group's £6.6 million (€9.59 million) purchase of a Jersey-based trust company from Bank of Scotland. The deal was signed off a half-hour after the market closed for Christmas on Friday and news of the transaction was not enough to lift the seasonal lull yesterday.

The news didn't even lift IFG shares, which dropped three cent, or 2.1 per cent, to €1.40 soon after IFG notified the stock exchange of the deal and never recovered after that. However, dealers said the volume of stock changing hands was very low.

The bigger financial stocks fared better and the best of those was Irish Life & Permanent. Its shares gained almost 2 per cent to close 33 cent higher at €16.93, again on low volumes.

There was stronger trading in Anglo Irish Bank, which closed nearly 1 per cent higher with a 12 cent gain at €12.52. Allied Irish Banks was up 10 cent at €18.25 and Bank of Ireland was also up 10 cent at €13.40.

The biggest loser on the day was insurance group FBD Holdings, which gave up 54 cent to close at €37.06.

As for the big industrials, building materials group CRH gave up 10 cent to close at €24.41 ahead of an update next week on its trading position at the end of another bumper year for the construction sector. Grafton closed 8 cent higher at €9.24.

Industrial holding group DCC gained another 9 cent to close at €18.04 after a 45 cent gain on Friday following the favourable outcome of the mammoth "insider dealing" case taken against it in the High Court by Fyffes, the fruit importer.

The Fyffes stock closed unchanged at €2.30.

Settlement Day: January 3rd