IAWS provided the highlight of another steady day on the market, where financial shares continued to push ahead strongly.

Settlement Day: May 17th

By Brendan McGrath, Markets Editor

The placing of nine million IAWS shares held by the Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society was well-received and the price of €8.50 was a negligible discount on the overnight price of €8.80. The shares closed at €8.52.

The placing of the shares with overseas investors will improve liquidity as will the other 10 million shares spun-out by the society to its members.

Green Property had an early run and traded up as high as €9.20 after disclosing that it had received a possible bid approach. But references in the statement to a possible bid at a "modest" premium to the share price took most of the steam out of the shares and they closed just 10 cents higher on €8.80.

Financial shares continued to advance although volumes in the two main banks were relatively modest. AIB gained 13 cents to €15.33 while Bank of Ireland was 15 cents stronger on €13.45. Anglo Irish's stunning run shows no sign of coming to a halt and the shares jumped 25 cents to €6.84 in volume of almost 2.2 million shares.

Smurfit continued to range-trade with hedge funds and arbritrageurs continuing to be active. Almost 6.8 million shares traded as the stock drifted two cents lower on €3.17.

Ryanair continued its slow recovery and added nine cents to €5.85 while Fyffes was two cents easier on €1.55. CRH was the biggest faller on the day, losing 55 cents to €19.15.