SIGNIFICANT gains by some frontliners punctuated relatively thin trading on the Irish exchange yesterday. Despite these gains the day was dominated by losses, particularly among the two main banks.

Dealers said there was little news to drive the market and that the early weakness of the Dow Jones had contributed to a slightly weaker tone in the Irish market.

Among the financial stocks, AIB eased 4p to 355p while Bank of Ireland dropped 3p to 456p. Hibernian was down 5p to finish the day at 265p and Irish Permanent fell from 404p to 400p.

The only financial stock which performed well yesterday was Irish Life, which gained 2p to reach 259p. This performance paled, however, when compared to Guinness, which in one deal jumped from 435p to 443p and Arnotts which also gained 8p from 327p to 335p.

Smurfit made similar gains, rising 8p to 157p during a series of deals. The other major company to have jumped ahead yesterday was CRH, which gained 6p to end the day at 490p.

There was little movement in the food sector where trading was dominated by Kerry. The company gained top to finish at 515p.

The wire group IWP dropped 5p to finish at 435p. Independent Newspapers, on the other hand gained 5p to finish at 415p.

Crean also dropped 5p to end the day at 230p. Fyffes, which reported a leap of more than 16 per cent in pre-tax profits on Wednesday but said growth in 1996 would be slower, dropped from 111p to 107p.

Of course, the big news on the market was the decision by the Anglo Dutch conglomerate, Unilever, to agree to buy Allied Domecq's 75 per cent holding in the tea and confectionary group, Lyons Irish Holdings. Unilever offered £73 million for the stake - equivalent to 325p per share.

Unilever is now required to bid for the remaining 25 per cent and is likely to bid more than 325p.