The Irish market lifted this afternoon, as banking and construction stocks boosted the index.
By 12.57pm, the Iseq had added 26.97 points to 3,080.94, lifted by gains in Bank of Ireland, Irish Life and Permanent and CRH.
Bank of Ireland was up 3.6 per cent to trade at €1.56 by 1pm. The shares ended 8 per cent off yesterday after shareholders voted to participate in the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), despite expressing their anger to the bank's board.
Irish Life and Permanent continued to put in a solid performance, after ending yesterday's session flat at €3.50. The shares gained 3.4 per cent to trade at €3.62 this afternoon.
AIB continued its losing streak from yesterday's session, when it fell almost 11 per cent to end the session at just under €1.45. By 1pm, the stock was down 1.7 per cent to €1.42.
Elan was trading 1.5 per cent up at €5.14.
CRH also showed some gains during the session, after ending the previous day's session 25 cent down at €18.20. The stock rose 1.1 per cent to €18.41 this afternoon.
Glanbia slipped 1.3 per cent to €2.75, while Independent News and Media was down 4.34 per cent to 11 cent.
European shares were flat, held up primarily due to demand for defensive stocks.
The dollar reversed earlier gains and the euro rose to hit a near one-month high, driven higher as Asian central banks were seen buying the pair.
The euro rose to $1.4578, its highest since December 16th, 2009, according to Reuters data. It was last up 0.5 per cent on the day at $1.4568.
Additional reporting - Reuters
