Dublin report/Laura Slattery:It was a subdued start to the year's trading on the Dublin market yesterday, as most investors appear to have taken the rest of the week off to help them recover from last year's annus horribilis on the Iseq.

The index finished 2007 at 6,934.35, a drop of 26 per cent for the year, after it managed to fall a further 16 points - quarter of a percentage point - in the half-day trading session on New Year's Eve. It recovered 19 points yesterday to close up 0.28 per cent on light volumes.

Despite the all-round quiet, the Iseq did show some signs of new year resilience, outperforming many European stock markets, which took a tumble as new figures from the US showed that its manufacturing sector unexpectedly contracted in December, sinking to its lowest point in almost five years.

Rumours of a bid for British bank Alliance & Leicester lifted sentiment among the London-listed financial stocks, but had no effect on the Irish banks, which had a lacklustre day's trading. Anglo Irish Bank fell 2 per cent, AIB was down half a per cent while Bank of Ireland and Irish Life & Permanent both climbed.

There was some activity in CRH, which is to issue a pre-close trading statement this morning. Dealers said the US manufacturing figures suggested that the building materials group may issue a less than rosy outlook for its operations across the Atlantic, which account for about half of its business.

The only real news concerned fruit group Fyffes, which purchased - for an undisclosed sum - a 60 per cent stake in US fruit importer Sol Group Marketing, as well as a number of other businesses. The company's share price rose 2 per cent to €0.96.

Elsewhere, the volume of trading for many stocks was less than 5,000 units.