A firm London market, especially for banking stocks and a solid opening by Wall Street, ahead of the Fed's announcement to leave interest rates unchanged for the time being, provided a firm platform for the Irish market which closed just more than 1 per cent higher. Bank stocks led the recovery in Dublin, but turnover remained low with little institutional activity.
AIB and Bank of Ireland both gained 17 cents with AIB closing on €9.53 and Bank of Ireland on €6.90. Davy has repeated its view that the pessimism towards the banks has been greatly overdone and reiterated its €12.50 and €9.10 targets for AIB and Bank of Ireland respectively. Other financials did not fare so well with Anglo Irish down two cents on €2.18 in turnover of almost two million shares while Irish Life & Permanent lost 15 cents to €9.20.
DCC was the star of the industrials and jumped 25 cents to €11.00. Glanbia, however, went the opposite direction and lost three cents to a new low of 59 cents. CRH was five cents firmer on €18.63, Smurfit continued its recovery and gained five cents to €2.28 while Waterford Wedgwood added three cents to €1.26 ahead of interim results today. Company broker Davy has pencilled in forecast profits of €16 million and earnings per share of 2.1 cents for the tableware manufacturer.
Minmet did not trade in Dublin but remained the focus of heavy trading in London as punters speculated on its Brazilian gold interests. Almost five million shares traded as the share added 2 1/4p to 32p sterling.
