Dublin was a laggard among European markets yesterday as a lack of corporate news prevented momentum. Volumes were thin, though as to be expected for a Friday in August.

The financials were all weak, and combined with a poor performance from building materials group CRH, the Iseq's main members helped drag the index down 30.33 points, to 7,761.69.

Anglo Irish was the index's busiest stock, with as many as 3.6 million shares changing hands. However, the stock did little to make its mark on the overall performance, slipping 5 cent, or 0.4 per cent, to end the day at €11.95.

Allied Irish fell 10 cent, or 0.5 per cent, at €20.20, while Bank of Ireland lost 8 cent, or 0.5 per cent, to close at €14.72.

Dealers also reported selling interest in Irish Life & Permanent towards the end of the day, which pushed the stock's closing price as low as €19.04, down 21 cent, or 1.1 per cent on the previous day.

CRH dropped 24 cent, or 0.9 per cent, to €25.35.

Ryanair was down 8 cent, or 1.1 per cent, at €7.16 as the stock continued to suffer from the fallout of the alleged terrorist attack attempts last week.

Yesterday the group's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, threatened to sue the British government unless security at UK airports returned to the levels established before last week's incident. He described some of the current security measures as nonsensical and said they were sending the wrong signal to the public, as well as handing a public relations victory to extremism. Authorities in the UK yesterday rejected his appeals and said they had no intention of changing the current arrangements.

While the general sentiment was negative, C&C did manage to continue its positive run, adding 8 cent, or 0.9 per cent, to close at €8.85.

Elsewhere, Fyffes was also among the few gainers, rising 4 cent, or 2.8 per cent, to end the day at €1.46.