The stock market closed modestly lower but dealers said volumes were extremely light due to yesterday's bank holiday.

"The bank holiday means that there are not too may investors keen to do much," one trader noted.

Ryanair and Bank of Ireland were the only two stocks to enjoy trading volumes of more than one million shares.

Nearly 1.7 million shares traded in the low-fares airline as it gave up 20 cents, or 3 per cent, to 5.93. Dealers attributed the drop to passenger figures for July, which showed that load factors on the company's planes dropped to 85 per cent from 93 per cent a year earlier, the third month in a row that they recorded a fall. Attention is now focused on first-quarter results from the airline today which are expected to show a rise of around 10 per cent in net income and earnings per share.

Meanwhile, Bank of Ireland added just two cents to €10.42 as the bank again announced the purchase of its own securities. It bought 100,000 shares on Friday at 10.38 per share.

Anglo Irish Bank also gained ground, adding 12 cents to 8.32. But AIB lost 10 cents to 12.25 while Irish Life & Permanent was also weaker, closing seven cents lower at 9.82.

Dealers said CRH drifted, losing 15 cents to €16.40 after the strong gains made in the wake of its Dutch acquisition last week.

In the pharmaceutical sector, Elan gained 10 cents to 4.50 while Galen, which is due to report results on Wednesday, slid by 13 cents to 8.78.

DCC, which announced the purchase of 40,000 of its own shares at 10.00 per share on Friday, added 10 cents to 10.20.