The Irish stock market made some ground in a half-day session that finished at lunchtime and during which trading was particularly light.

The Iseq index of Irish shares closed up 6.94 points or 0.24 per cent at 2,885.10.

The market was down 3 per cent on the year as a whole. London's FTSE was down 1.2 per cent on the day, but its close of 5,900 meant that it was 9.2 per cent ahead for the year as a whole.

Elsewhere in Europe, Paris's CAC fell by 1.2 per cent 3,805, leaving it 3.3 per cent down for 2010.

Frankfurt's DAX performed much better, it was also down 1.2 per cent, but its closing reading of 6,914 meant that it gained 16 per cent in 2010.

In Dublin, Irish Life and Permanent was the most popular of the banks, adding 7.89 per cent to close at €1.08.

Its rivals, Bank of Ireland and the largely State-owned AIB both lost ground.

Bank of Ireland was down over 2 per cent at 37.5 cent while AIB dropped 3.23 per cent to close at 30 cent.

Insulation and building systems specialist, Kingspan, was up 4.76 per cent at €7.49.

Low-cost airline, Ryanair, also gained a bit of altitude, closing 1.2 per cent up at €3.77. Aer Lingus was down 2.7 per cent at €1.08.

Elsewhere, the Iseq's biggest stock, building materials group, CRH, dipped 0.26 per cent to close at €15.50.