Market Report:Investors appeared to be sleeping off their Christmas hangovers yesterday as one Dublin trader described the buying and selling of shares on the Dublin market as "very thin".

"You could have left the market closed," he said. "It was very sleepy. There is a general market apathy out there. Less than 20 per cent of staff are working."

European markets rose slightly but Irish stocks remained largely unloved among investors. The Iseq lost 86.18 points, or 1.2 per cent, closing at 6,899 after 4.24 million shares were traded, well below average. The index was up 8.9 per cent from its 12- month low, recorded on November 22nd.

"We took a bit of a pummelling, down just over 1 per cent," said the trader. "Some of the other markets performed better but Irish stocks fared as per usual."

Anglo Irish Bank enjoyed the heaviest trading as 2.3 million shares changed hands. Shares in the bank closed down 1.4 per cent at €10.50.

Bucking the downward trend that has afflicted most Irish financial stocks in recent months, Bank of Ireland closed up yesterday, though it was just 0.4 per cent higher at €10.15.

Another financial stock did not fare as well - Irish Life & Permanent closed down 1.66 per cent at €11.78 with just 292,000 shares being traded

Shares in AIB also fell, closing down 1.2 per cent at €15.46. CRH dropped 1.2 per cent to close the day at €23.99.

Ryanair's share price fell 1.28 per cent to end the day's trading at €4.60.

Just over a million shares were traded in Total Produce, which closed down 5.6 per cent at 58.5 cent.

C&C Group closed down just over 3 per cent at €4.15.