Market report: The Irish stock market advanced yesterday as stocks such as Anglo Irish Bank, Kingspan and Irish Life & Permanent turned in strong performances.

Shares in Anglo rose by 25 cent, or 1.8 per cent, to €13.80 ahead of the release of interim results tomorrow. The market is expecting a positive set of figures, driven by continued strong loan growth.

Irish Life & Permanent also remained in demand, finishing the day 24 cent, or 1.2 per cent, higher at €20.79.

Meanwhile, AIB and Bank of Ireland enjoyed a strong start to the day following weekend speculation in the British press that Spanish bank Santander could be a possible suitor.

However, both banks later gave up some of the early gains as the takeover speculation waned, with Bank of Ireland closing unchanged at €14.70 and AIB finishing 12 cent higher at €18.97.

Dealers described Kingspan as a "star" performer as shares in the building materials group hit an all-time high of €14.00 before closing 20 cent, or 1.5 per cent, higher at €13.91 amid talk of further acquisitions.

Grafton Group did not fare as well, however, giving up 11 cent, or nearly 1 per cent, to €11.09 after shareholders at the annual meeting were told trading was in line with expectations although the UK market remains tough.

Fyffes, which holds an extraordinary meeting today to approve the spin-off of its property interests, was another of yesterday's losers. Shares in the fruit group closed three cent, or 1.4 per cent, lower at €2.04.

Elsewhere in the food sector, shares in C&C were unchanged at €6.30 ahead of the release of full-year results today and as the company declined to comment on reports that there were three bidders for its Tayto business, Jacob Fruitfield, Tayto Northern Ireland and Largo Foods.

Shares in United Drug added 17 cent, or 4.5 per cent, to €3.95 as it announced it had paid £6.1 million (€8.9 million) to buy two British medical distribution firms.

Settlement day: May 11th