CRH boosts Iseq performance

The Irish market looked set to outperform peers today as a strong performance from leading stock, CRH, and the banks helped lift the Iseq index of Irish shares by more than 2 per cent at one stage.

However, it slipped back slightly to close 1.7 per cent up at 2,948.45, a gain of 48.76 points, which was in line with European stocks.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600, which covers leading stocks in 18 western European markets, was up 1.9 per cent this afternoon, while the S&P 500 jumped 1.6 per cent to 1,095.67.

It was the sixth consecutive day of growth in European markets, this time driven by good news from Alcoa and a positive response to Greece?s sale of debt.

In Dublin, a strong showing from the market?s biggest company, building materials group, CRH, which accounts for one third of the Iseq index, boosted the overall performance.

CRH rose over 5 per cent to close at €16.67. Dealers said that the stock had traded at around €16.50 for most of the day before spiking markedly towards the close of business.

They added that there was no particular reason for the interest, barring the fact that many investors felt that the stock had been over sold in recent days.

DIY and builders? merchant, Grafton, issued a trading update saying that profits grew strongly in the second half on the back of a good performance from its British merchanting business.

However, investors failed to bite, and the stock shed almost 2 per cent to close at €3.001.

Dealers said that the update was broadly in line with expectations, and suggested that investors may have been hoping for slightly better news.

A note from Davy suggesting that merchanting sales in Britain could flatten out later in the year may also have coloured some investors? views, but the note itself says that Grafton is well positioned to benefit from the current growth in the sector.

The banks also performed well, AIB added 3.4 per cent to close at 94 cent on what dealers described as good volumes.

Bank of Ireland added 1.9 per cent to close at 74.4 cent, although the bank was up by almost 5 per cent earlier in the day.

Elsewhere, Aer Lingus added 3.85 per cent to close at 81 cent, while its biggest shareholder and main rival in the Irish market, Ryanair, gained 0.31 per cent to close at €3.922. Both benefitted from the fact that airline indices have risen strongly in recent days.