Irish Life was the star of an otherwise pretty dull day on the Irish market with the stock benefiting from an enthusiastic research note and upgrade from Schroders. Irish Life traded as high as €13.90 before closing up 32 cents on €13.79 as Schroders put a "buy" tag on the shares and raised its price target from €14.25 to €15.50.
Anglo Irish was another financial stock to get an upgrade from a British broker with Commerzbank increasing its price target from €4.60 to €6.00 and retaining its "buy" recommendation. Comsec's upgrade seems to have been priced into Anglo shares which closed unchanged on €5.05.
The two big banking stocks were firmer with AIB up 20 cents on €12.59 as the market awaits the publication of the Allfirst report and the outcome of today's board meeting. Bank of Ireland gained 30 cents to €11.40.
There was little activity of note in industrial shares with CRH drifting 21 cents lower on €19.00 on post-results profit-taking. The heavy trading in Smurfit seems to have tailed off for the moment and the stock drifted two cents lower on €2.71. Independent continued its recent run and added five cents to €2.10. Ryanair lost six cents to €6.90 while Riverdeep fell back 33 cents to €3.90 from its somewhat artificial level of last Friday.
Among second-liners, there was hefty trading in Abbey and the share gained 15 cents to €3.90 while Norish lost five cents to €0.70 despite renewed stake-building by Mr John Teeling and Mr Tom Cunningham.
