A short session of trading in the US today meant that the Iseq suffered something of a Thanksgiving hangover. Despite this traders said that the volume of shares traded “was decent in the end”.
The Iseq index closed at 2,538.49, a gain of 13.75 or 0.55 per cent.
It was a day of mixed fortunes for financial stocks. Irish Life and Permanent made the biggest gains, up almost 4 per cent to €1.68, on the day when all six of the Irish State guaranteed banks were locked in negotiations about mergers and recapitalisation with Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan.
Anglo Irish Bank fared worst following a research note from Citi which placed a price target of 85 cent on Anglo, down from €3.25 previously, and rated the stock a sell.
Citi analysts believe Anglo will need to recapitalise to the tune of €3.5 billion, an opinion which clearly worried investors. That news drove the stock down to €0.854 from its previous close of €0.93.
Bank of Ireland lost 6 cent to close at €1.44 while AIB lost 7 cent or 2.53 per cent to close at €2.70
There was little air under the wings of the airline stocks - Ryanair was relatively flat closing at €2.93, a slight gain, while Aer Lingus closed at €1.12, down 0.71 per cent.
Elan traded up strongly, gaining 44 cent to close at €4.84 but one trader noted that this was a carry over from a strong session in the US overnight rather than any news today.
Greencore traded as low as €0.91 during the day but rallied towards the close to finish on €0.94, a loss of 1 cent. One trader said that market participants believe that property developer Liam Carroll will dispose of his 29.5 per cent stake in the sandwich maker despite his statements to the contrary.
Gains in drugmakers and banks saw Britain's FTSE 100 close up 1.5 per cent, bringing its rise on the week to 13.4 per cent, its biggest weekly rise.
In Paris the CAC40 gained 0.38 per cent to close on 3,262.68, while in Frankfurt the DAX added a more modest 0.09 per cent to end the week on 4,669.44