MARKET REPORT:THE IRISH market underperformed the rest of Europe on a day when dealers said volumes were light and sellers were responsible for most of the activity in leading stocks.

Most of the damage was done by the "usual suspects" such as the banks and CRH, according to one dealer.

However, Independent News & Media, the focus of a row between key shareholders the O'Reilly family and Denis O'Brien, provided one of the few bright spots of the day.

The group gained 14 cent yesterday to close at €1.98. In percentage terms, the increase added more than 7 per cent to its value, one of the best performances on the board.

One dealer said that a late order for a few hundred thousand units meant that the rise was slightly artificial, but he pointed out that the stock would have gained about 4 per cent in any case, meaning it was one of the few to attract buyers yesterday.

There were a lot of sellers in Bank of Ireland, which ended the day down 26 cent at €9.50, a fall of 2.66 per cent on the day. Investors sold more than 2.2 million shares in the bank in Dublin yesterday.

Irish Life & Permanent also dropped sharply, shedding 50 cent to close at €12.30, a dip of almost 4 per cent in its share price. The number of shares sold topped the one million mark.

AIB did little better than its competitors, dropping 25 cent to €13.25, which knocked 1.85 per cent off its value.

Anglo Irish fell 8 cent to €8.80, a drop of just less than 1 per cent. Volumes were large, with 6.2 million shares in the bank changing hands.

International building materials group, CRH, the market's biggest company, shed 30 cent to €23.60, a fall of 1.26 per cent. Investors sold close to 900,000 shares in the company.

Iseq: 6,152.81 (-95.10) Settlement date: April 2nd