Trade was slow on the Dublin market yesterday as activity in the US wound down ahead of that country's July 4th national holiday tomorrow.

However, dealers said some gains were made and the Iseq index of Irish shares ended the day up over 25 points at 9,331.56.

There was little in the way of corporate news to boost trade apart from CRH, the country's biggest industrial group, which issued a positive interim trading statement and published details of a series of acquisitions that it brought over the line in the first six months of the year.

Investors responded well to the news and the stock hit a high of €37.25 before finishing 42 cent up at €37.05. Over two million shares in the group changed hands in Dublin. Davy Stockbrokers said it was likely to raise its target price for the share as a result of the positive news.

Food group, IAWS, added 30 cent to close at €15.80 on trades totalling over 200,000. Dealers said that the stock had been oversold recently, and investors spotted an opportunity to get some value for their money.

Elsewhere, Independent News & Media gained one cent to close at €3.76 on good volumes. Over 2.4 million shares were traded on the day.

Business in financial stocks was quiet, dealers said. Over 5.5 million shares in AIB were sold. It gained 11 cent to close at €20.32. Bank of Ireland rose 16 cent to close at €15.10, after 3.22 million shares changed hands.

Anglo Irish Bank was the looser amongst the financials yesterday, dropping 22 cent to close at €14.98. Just over 3.6 million shares in the company were traded in Dublin yesterday.

Recent Dublin market entrant, digital camera specialist, Andor Technology, added two cent to close at €1.51 on two trades totalling 500 shares.