The silly season slowdown continued on the Dublin market yesterday, with dealers describing activity as slow.

The ISEQ index of leading Irish shares added 24.3 points to close at 5,385.38 last night.

Of the leading stocks traded yesterday, Ryanair Holdings was one of the most active, with around three million shares changing hands.

It closed five cents down at €4.15. Dealers said ongoing concern about the budget airline's exposure to oil prices continued to trouble the stock.

Exploration company, Providence Resources, in which Sir Anthony O'Reilly has a 45.4 per cent stake, was the big loser on the day.

The company lost half its admittedly small value to close at two cents, following an announcement that drilling results from its Blackrock oil and gas prospect in the Celtic Sea were inconclusive.

Elsewhere, there were small volumes traded in financial stocks, with Bank of Ireland adding nine cents to end the day at €10.83.

Irish Life and Permanent jumped by nine cents also, closing at €12.19. Anglo Irish closed seven cent up at €13.47.

AIB remained unchanged after confirming that it had begun the process of repaying customers €25.6 million for overcharging for foreign exchange transactions, which was in breach of consumer protection legislation.

Elsewhere, CRH crept up by 10 cents to finish at €18.47, and Elan gained 26 cents to close at €17.93. Grafton, which has made a €6.54 a share bid for competitor, Heiton Group, added four cents to €7.04.

Dealers said it looked like the stock would settle at around that level. Heiton added three cents to close at €6.53.

In the food sector, Greencore shed three cents to €2.90 and Kerry dropped 10 cents to finish at €17.20. IAWS gained 12 cents to close at €10.10.

Housebuilder Abbey was another mover, gaining five cents to close at €8.60.

Settlement Day: August 26th