European bourses sold off heavily this morning, but rallied once US markets opened.
Although Germany approved its share of the €750 billion euro-zone bailout package earlier today, this came as no great surprise and failed to lift stock markets in the region. Instead Europe took its lead later in the day from stronger US markets, and recovered into the close.
There was a dearth of stock-specific news on the Dublin market, and so the Iseq index traded very much in line with its European peers. The The index closed up 0.2 per cent at 2,887.83.
Like the wider market, Bank of Ireland succumbed to an early sell-off before staging a recovery. Its ordinary stock closed up slightly at 77.4 cent.
Elsewhere, Ryanair came under a little bit of pressure, and the budget airline dropped 3.5 per cent to just below €3.09.
Former state carrier Aer Lingus was also out of favour, slipping about 2.4 per cent to rest just above 68 cent.
Drug manufacturer Elan was another loser, shedding almost 12 cent to about €4.45.
Oil and gas exploration company Providence Resources, which issued an update on its Gulf of Mexico operations today, bounced almost 3 per cent. However the stock is trading at such low levels that in absolute terms this gain was minimal, nudging the stock up to 3.5 cent.
A number of construction-related stocks fared well. Index stalwart CRH added more than 1 per cent to close the week just below €17.80.
Grafton Group, which had been weaker than the rest of the market in recent sessions, closed up strongly. The stock gained 8 per cent, bringing it to €3.08. One broker described the jump as an "oversold bounce", as there was no specific newsflow prompting the move.
Britain's FTSE 100 ended the day 0.2 per cent lower, having slipped below 5,000 at one point. Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 fell 0.7 and 0.1 per cent, respectively.