A modest day's trading and light volumes led to some price swings on the Irish Stock Exchange yesterday. With many of the heavyweight stocks dropping back on the day, more than 2 per cent was shaved off the value of the the ISEQ index. It closed the day down 121.96 points at 5,323.11.

Financial stocks, with the exception of Anglo Irish Bank, continued to slide yesterday. Anglo picked up three cents to close at €4.08 on light volumes of just more than 400,000 shares.

Volumes in the two big banks, AIB and Bank of Ireland, were good, but both continued their downward movements of the past few days in line with other European financials.

AIB, which saw more than two million shares change hands, lost 28 cents on the day to €11.75, despite a late rally in the afternoon. Bank of Ireland dropped back 30 cents to €9.47, with more than three million shares traded. Irish Life & Permanent also gave up a lot of ground, falling back 65 cents €11.80 on very light volumes of just more than 200,000 shares traded, while First Active lost five cents to close at €3.20.

Among the industrials, CRH eased back 14 cents to €19.14 on very thin volumes, while Smurfit lost 10 cents to €2.45.

Elsewhere, Elan, which accounts for around half of the ISEQ, found itself under some pressure, eventually shedding €1.37 to €44.60. Sherry FitzGerald, which issued a profit warning earlier in the day, was 10 cents weaker at €0.95. Ryanair continued to drift, losing 23 cents to close at €6.50, on a volume of more than 1.1 million shares traded.

DCC put in a good day, notching up 22 cents to €11.52, while Waterford Wedgwood, which traded as high as $0.90, eventually closed one cent stronger, at €0.83.