Share prices rose strongly on the Irish market, boosted by big early gains on European markets, especially in technology and telecom stocks. The market was further boosted by an extraordinary opening session where the Nasdaq market was up almost 9 per cent and the Dow more than 3 per cent by the time the Irish market closed.
With European mobile phone stocks benefiting from reports that the European Investment Bank might help in restructuring heavy debts associated with 3G licences, Vodafone jumped almost 6 per cent to £2.19 sterling.
This gave Eircom a boost and the stock gained seven cents to €2.54 in turnover of almost 3.7 million shares.
Financial shares were generally firmer with AIB up 46 cents on €12.10, Anglo Irish up six cents on €3.51 while Irish Life jumped 40 cents to €12.80. Bank of Ireland, however, was the exception and drifted three cents to €9.67. Among leading industrials, CRH added five cents to €18.55 while Fyffes jumped eight cents to €0.93 in sizeable turnover with almost 1.5 million shares trading. Jurys gained 30 cents to €8.92 with the market paying little heed to the recent trading statement while Water- ford Wedgwood - weak of late - regained six cents to €1.12.
In London, Baltimore gained 7p to 85p sterling in very heavy turnover of more than 15 million shares, with the positive trading statement from RSA improving sentiment towards the stock.
The market, however, remains nervous towards Baltimore despite its membership of the "90 per cent club", those stocks which have lost more than 90 per cent from their high.
Parthus remained weak but managed a 1p gain to 67p sterling even though Davy has said that its current share price "defies logic". In New York, there were strong gains for most of the Irish technology shares, with Baltimore, Iona and SmartForce the best of the bunch. In Toronto, Ivernia's dismal run continued and the share lost five Canadian cents to Can$0.27, a new low.
