The surge on international markets - largely on the back of the rumours of a Deutsche Bank bid for Bankers Trust - gave the Irish index a strong boost yesterday, with the market gaining over 2 per cent.
The Deutsche/Bankers Trust merger is still speculation, but the markets took the view that if these two giants believe it is an opportune time to merge, the prospects for financial markets have improved greatly after the hiatus of recent months.
There was chunky trading in the two big banks with AIB up 20p to 960p and Bank of Ireland 40p higher on £11.80.
Other financials also did well with Irish Permanent the best performer of the entire sector with a 50p jump to 900p.
First Active gained 10p to a post-flotation high of 310p, Irish Life added 5p to 520p while Anglo Irish gained 3p to 155p.
Apart from CRH which was 5p higher on 875p, there was little interest in the industrials.
Boxmore, however, fell sharply after poor interim figures, and was down 23p on 112p in Dublin and down 27p to 107 1/2p sterling in London.
Confirmation that Adare has built up a 12 per cent stake in Ferguson International did not stimulate any trading interest and Adare was unchanged over the course of the session on 620p.
Smurfit drifted 2p lower to 103p.
The early rise on Wall Street boosted most of the Irish Nasdaqlisted stocks. Ryanair was the best of the Irish with a $1 1/4 gain to $31 1/2 while Esat was $1 firmer on $31 5/8.
CBT, however, weakened once again in heavy trading and it is difficult to see where the share is going to find support.
Iona was trading almost $1 lower around $27 1/2 but another out-of-favour stock, Saville, was $2 higher just short of $15.
