Financial stocks - out of favour for so long - notched up some sizeable gains on the Irish market although there was some decent-sized trading in London to boost the overall turnover.
AIB had its best day for a long time, jumping 37 cents to €10.27 while Bank of Ireland was 15 cents higher on €7.26. Irish Life gained 37 cents to €10.07, Anglo Irish was unchanged on €2.38 and even First Active managed a 10-cent gain to €1.90 despite another dire set of results.
Industrials were mixed, with CRH down 35 cents to €18.50 despite its recent good results. The placing of 5 per cent new equity and also a downgrade from "buy" to "add" from HSBC did not help the share although there were signs of renewed bid interest at the close. Smurfit remained weak and fell five cents to €2.10. Kerry rebounded from recent post-results profit-taking and was 25 cents higher on €14.50.
Eircom drifted four cents lower to €2.51 and the market seemed to pay little heed to the comments from Alfie Kane in Business & Finance that the group could be taken out in the next couple of years. Glanbia managed to recover three cents to 58 cents after its poor results, profits warning and dividend cut while IAWS jumped 38 cents to €7.40. Ryanair was 25 cents higher on €8.90 while Horizon jumped 50 cents to €10.80.
Technology stocks - apart from Trintech and SmartForce - were weaker. Baltimore - saddled with a downgrade from "strong buy" to "buy" from Warburg - was 18p lower in London on £7.91 sterling, while Parthus lost 18p to £3.41 sterling. Trintech bucked the trend and added €1.14 to €33.60 on the Neuer Markt and was also trading higher in New York as the Irish market closed.
