THE Dublin market had a quiet day yesterday but managed to regain some of the ground lost on Friday after the release of US jobless numbers.

Most activity came from domestic institutions, traders said, with only a little bit of overseas interest.

However, traders said the strength of the US long bond was causing some concern in the market.

"We are fine so long as US fund managers continue to invest but, if they switch from equities into bonds, the market could come a long way," one trader said.

The main news among individual companies was Mr Dermot Desmond's announcement that his International Investment Underwriting company had taken a 5.8 per cent stake in Golden Vale.

Traders said the stock was undervalued and the company's recent troubles meant that Mr Desmond may be buying at the bottom of the market. Golden Vale closed up lp at 65p a share. However, traders noted that the announcement came late in the day.

Irish Permanent was well bid, closing 1p up at 383p a share. Other financial stocks were also well bid. Bank of Ireland closed up 1p at 445p, while AIB gained 2p to 334p.

CRH reached another new high cup 2p at 615p on oversees demand. However, Smurfit fell lp to 163p.

Oversees buyers also bid Fyffes up 1p to 108p.

Greencore continued to be well bid after its better than expected results last week, closing up 2p at 322p, while Avonmore put on 11/2p to end at 1521/2p.

Bond markets had a mixed day.

The five year 6.25 per cent benchmark closed at 97.36p to yield 6.99 per cent, from 6.59 per cent, while the 10 year closed at 101.35p to yield 7.65 per cent, from 7.67 per cent on Friday.

The market is looking ahead to an auction of 20 year paper expected later this week.

Inflation data from the US and Britain will also be closely watched traders said.

The US is releasing key data today and tomorrow, while Thursday will see the release of key British data.