A day described by one dealer as "a damp squib" was all that could be expected at the Irish Stock Exchange yesterday with Wall Street closed for Memorial Day and London closed for the UK bank holiday.

Dealing in thin volume was spread across 39 quoted companies and, with the exception of last Tuesday, follows a declining ISEQ over the past twelve days. The big interest on the day was in Independent, which traded up 20p to 440p - a 4.8 per cent increase - following its record pre-tax profit announcement of £100 million last month, but only a week after the stock hit 400p.

"There seems to be a little bit of buying interest in Independent but, other than that, it's dead because of the UK and US holidays," a dealer said. Sources dismissed UK reports that the Independent would be a likely bidder for the Mirro Group in the UK.

Bank of Ireland slipped 12p to 1333p on three deals as the stock went ex-dividend. The other financials were equally sluggish, with AIB dropping 3p to 932p,Irish Life losing 3p to 597p and Irish Permanent going down 5p to 880p.

Anglo Irish Bank held on to a 1p gain, at 193p, in two deals, while Hibernian shed 10p, closing at 750p. The main industrials also saw some interest with CRH holding at 1055p in one deal, Smurfit down 1p to 247p and Greencore the same at 400p.