DUBLIN REPORT: Iseq:3,071.52 (-26.24) Settlement date:January 8th

THE ISEQ ended down 0.8 per cent yesterday having given up some of the gains made the previous day, as “new year euphoria” evaporated from the markets.

One of the big reasons behind the drop was due to CRHwhich fell by 3.8 per cent yesterday, finishing at €18.75 at the day's end.

The drop was attributed to a trading update issued by the company yesterday morning which, according to one trader, “just wasn’t as sexy” as had been anticipated.

AIBadvanced for the second day in a row, finishing up by 11.6 per cent at €1.51. Traders were attributing the gains to strong performances in the overall banking sector, particularly in the UK with Barclays, RBS and Lloyds all performing well.

However, analysts were flummoxed on the whole as to why AIB performed so well, having advanced by 23 per cent in the past few days when the likes of Bank of Irelandmade relatively modest gains of 5.2 per cent at €1.53 and Irish Life and Permanentclosed 2.7 per cent down at €3.40.

One trader said there was “no rhyme or reason” other than the fact that the situation for Irish banks is likely to remain volatile for some time to come.

Meanwhile, Ryanair, which was the "darling of the markets" a day previous finished down by 1.9 per cent at €3.46.

This comes ahead of the company’s investor update, due tomorrow, which is expected to prompt the next big trading day for the Irish market.

Aer Lingus,on the other hand, was one of the day's big gainers, finishing at €0.67 up 6.3 per cent, something traders attributed to "quite positive" news around the airline sector in Europe.

Other movers included Total Produce, up 8.8 per cent to €0.37, and Origin, which finished up by 3.7 per cent at €2.28.