MARKET REPORT:THE DUBLIN market had a decent day yesterday, by recent standards at least, and performed slightly better than its European peers.

AIB continued to recover from the carnage witnessed earlier in the week, trading up by close to 21 per cent, or 13 cent, to almost 75 cent on heavy volume.

One trader noted that the volume of shares traded in the bank in recent days has been significantly heavier than normal. Close to 20 per cent of AIB shares have changed hands over the week, but no announcements have been made that any party is building up a stake in the bank.

Bank of Ireland also regained ground yesterday, jumping by over 35 per cent, or 11 cent, to finish the week at 42 cent.

One trader reported market speculation that there is a “decent buyer out there looking for a block of shares” in the bank. However, as with AIB, no announcement has been made in this regard.

Irish Life Permanent held up well, adding 16 cent to its share price to close at €1.60.

After it emerged yesterday that Ryanair has accepted defeat in its latest bid for Aer Lingus, investors appeared to take the view that the budget airline won’t be returning to the table with another offer. The result was that the former State airline’s share price slid by almost 13 per cent, or 17 cent, to €1.18.

Despite stumbling to a low of €17.29 at one point, CRH staged an impressive recovery and closed at €17.96, a gain of 13 cent.

Grafton Group fell by over 10 cent to €1.49, while Kingspan slid 6 cent to just under €2.28.

The food industry was in favour with investors yesterday, with Kerry Group up 43 cent to €14.94, while Glanbia inched upwards by 4 cent to €2.65.

Elsewhere, Independent News Media bounced by 2.5 cent to 19 cent.

Settlement date: January 28th