On what was a mixed day for Irish stocks, the ISEQ closed 21 points stronger at 6,040.56. There was heavy volume in Eircom with more than 17 million shares changing hands. But the telecoms company closed the day unchanged at €1.34.
AIB, still benefiting from a lot of interest following its positive half-year results last week, was the star performer among the financials, with more than 1.4 million shares traded. It traded as high as €13.10 before easing back to close at €13.05, a jump of 55 cents on the day.
Elsewhere among the financials, Bank of Ireland dropped back 16 cents to €11.04 on lighter volumes of 1.5 million shares. Irish Life & Permanent lost 10 cents to €13.25, while Anglo Irish Bank was 15 cents weaker at €4.10. First Active was two cents up at €3.14.
Despite posting first-quarter numbers ahead of forecasts, Ryanair closed the day 20 cents weaker at €12.10 on the back of a statement which toned down the outlook going forward.
Among the industrials, building materials group CRH continued its downward drift, losing four cents to €19.45 on light volumes.Smurfit dropped a cent to €2.35
Elan, the pharmaceutical group, which accounts for a quarter of the index, bounced back from the previous day's drop, picking up 45 cents to €62.
As the ISEQ closed, Irish tech stocks on the Nasdaq were enjoying mixed fortunes.
Trintech was 1.06 per cent weaker at $1.8798, while Parthus had lost 3.61 per cent to $7.75.
Baltimore was 2.54 per cent stronger at $0.7998, while Iona was unchanged at $17.75
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