The Irish market was poised to outperform its European peers ahead of official closing prices today, but brokers said it was largely down to the performance of two stocks, CRH and Ryanair.
The virtual wipe out of the banks has meant that both stocks have a large weighting in the Iseq index of Irish shares, so their performance has a disproportionate impact on that of the overall market.
CRH was up close to 5 per cent at ¤17.75 on the back of news that newly-inaugurated US President, Barak Obama's administration is planning to spend $30 billion on a federal highway building programme.
Stockbroker Davy published a note yesterday estimating that the plan could boost CRH's earnings by 10 per cent to 15 per cent. The Irish group is the biggest supplier of road building materials in the US.
News that Easyjet's revenues were 32 per cent up in its first quarter boosted its larger rival, Ryanair, which was up 7.6 per cent at ¤3.15. In contrast, Aer Lingus started to slip following the Government's announcement that it is not going to sell to Ryanair at ¤1.40 a-share.
The Iseq index of Irish shares was up 2.58 per cent at 2,234.99 ahead of the close.
In London, the benchmark FTSE 100 index was more or less flat at 4052.23. Bloomberg reported that the Europe-wide Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index slipped 0.9 percent to 182.85, the lowest since November 21st.
