Financials bounce back after holiday weekend

Dublin Report: Volumes rebounded in Dublin yesterday as the market returned from the bank holiday weekend in upbeat mood.

Almost all the leading stocks gained ground on the day, led by the financials.

Anglo Irish Bank, which reports its first set of figures under under the leadership of David Drumm this morning, repeated its recent trend of trading strongly in the morning before drifting over the rest of the day. However, despite slipping from an intraday high of €9.22, the bank did end up with a gain on the day for the first time in almost a fortnight, closing on €8.98, three cent ahead of Friday's close, and boasting the strongest volume among the financials.

AIB put in a reasonably strong performance, adding more than 2 per cent on the day to finish at €16.10, up 35 cent.

Bank of Ireland was also a bit better, firming 11 cent to close on €11.83. Irish Life & Permanent bounced between €12.90 and €13 throughout the day before finishing back where it closed last week on €12.95.

Elan jumped close to 30 per cent at one stage yesterday, catching up on US trade on Monday when the Dublin market was closed. The stock came back somewhat after New York opened, ending the Dublin session on €4.73, up 53 cent or 12.6 per cent.

Waterford Wedgwood was another company to recover some ground yesterday as rumours swirled that the company could close its Dungarvan plant with the loss of around 400 jobs. The shares rose 11 per cent at one stage before coming back to close 5.5 per cent ahead on four cent.

CRH continued to recover after shedding more than 11 per cent of its value in recent weeks. The building materials giant is expected to release lower than expected acquisition spend figures at its annual meeting today.

Even in the relatively buoyant US market, foreign exchange movements are working against it. The stock added 20 cent yesterday to close on €19.45.