The summer lull in share trading on European stock markets was mirrored on the ISEQ index of Irish shares yesterday which traded down six points at 5,231.79 yesterday.

Irish Life & Permanent was the star performer again as it added a further 3 per cent gain on top of its impressive performances earlier this week. The share benefited from a bullish assessment by Deutsche Bank which predicted a 60 per cent upgrade on the stock which finished up 25 cents at €9.20.

The rest of the financials had a mixed day with AIB adding 4 cents at €9.46 and Bank of Ireland shedding 7 cents at €6.73. First Active was up 10 cents at €1.85 while Anglo Irish Bank lost one cent to close at €2.22.

Of the larger stocks on the ISEQ, CRH continued to lose ground shedding 15 cents to close at €17.85 while Eircom added 3 cents to close at €2.64. One analyst said CRH was probably at the bottom of its trading performance and due an upswing. Elan lost 60 cents to close at €59.40.

Some of the smaller stocks had a good day with IAWS up 42 cents at €8.02, a rise of some 5 per cent and Ulster Television adding 30 cents at €5.30.

Glanbia, which sold 49 per cent stake in its pizza business to Leprino, the biggest cheese company in the world for £27.5 million, adding one cent to close at 64 cents.

Irish shares on the Nasdaq were having a pretty good day as the Dublin market closed. Iona was up 2 per cent at just above $70, Baltimore was more than 3 per cent stronger at $19 and Smartforce had rebounded by more than 10 per cent following Thursday's fall adding $4.50 at $47 as the Dublin market closed.