Dublin report: Banks, and more precisely Bank of Ireland, were the focus of the market's attention yesterday. The Republic's second-biggest bank released first-half results showing a 28 per cent increase in underlying pretax profits and raised its full-year growth forecast to 20 per cent.

The announcement was welcomed by both analysts and traders, who said the figures were excellent news for the rest of the banking sector in Ireland.

The shares, which have had a strong run into the results, rose 30 cent initially, although they then fell back slightly as the day progressed, closing up 15 cent, or almost 1 per cent, at €16.15.

The other banks followed suit, with Allied Irish adding 12 cent, or 0.6 per cent, to end the day at €21.61, and Anglo Irish closed up 10 cent, or 0.7 per cent, at €14.40.

Irish Life & Permanent, which has lagged its peers of late as a result of the anticipated increased competition in the mortgage market following National Irish Bank's new offerings last month, added three cent, to end the day at €19.30.

Ryanair also had a good day, rising 20 cent, or 2.1 per cent, to close at €9.85 on strong volumes. The increase came as oil fell back below $58 a barrel.

Other stocks to move ahead included CRH, which broke through the €28 mark and traded happily above that level, according to dealers. The stock has struggled in recent times to break through this level and, as a result, has trailed in the building materials sector. Yesterday the shares closed up 16 cent, at €28.15.

Elsewhere IAWS and DCC, two stocks that currently seem able to do no wrong, continued their recent good runs, adding 57 and 48 cent respectively. IAWS ended the day up 3.1 per cent, at €19.05, while DCC was up 2 per cent, at €24. Both were records.