The Irish market enjoyed a decent day today, although weak performances from CRH and Ryanair held back the Iseq index, which closed up 0.8 per cent at 2,955.57.
The main stock-specific news came from AIB, which announced this morning that it plans to exchange up to €2.7 billion worth of perpetual bonds for new bonds in a move that may improve its core tier 1 capital by up to 10 per cent. This was well received by the market, and by about 3.30pm the stock had traded up by over 10 cent to €2.09. By the close of the afternoon session it had jumped a further 14 cent to €2.23, a level not seen since early January.
Bank of Ireland was also up on the day, rising almost 9 per cent to over €2.17. Irish Life & Permanent enjoyed a good day's trading as well, marking up by almost 10 per cent to €4.35.
Index heavyweight CRH was pretty weak, closing the day down 10 cent at €17.70. Low-fares airline Ryanair traded down by 7 cent to €3.53, which brokers said was to be expected given the spike in oil prices in recent days.
Recruitment group CPL Resources closed up by more than 3 per cent to €1.67, which one broker attributed to the fact that investors are beginning to favour cyclical stocks.
European equities ended at their highest close in five months, propelled by buoyant banking stocks, as US macro data showing the recession was abating helped shares extend their sharp three-month rally.
In London, the FTSE 100 closed at 4,461.87 points, up 25.12 or 0.57 per cent. Frankfurt's DAX index ended at 5,107.26 points, up 56.08 or 1.11 per cent, and in Paris the CAC-40 index closed at 3,334.94 points, up 19.67 or 0.59 per cent.
(Additional reporting: Reuters)