Overseas markets help stocks to move ahead

Firmer overseas stock markets helped Irish share prices to press ahead modestly, with most of the gains notched up by financial stocks.

After its half-year results, Bank of Ireland edged ahead seven cents to €9.92 against a background of conflicting reviews from Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. Goldman Sachs put an "outperform" tag on the shares and raised its price target from €10 to €10.60, while Deutsche put a price target of just €8.70 on the shares. Take your pick!

Irish Life & Permanent slipped 18 cents to €12.36 after disclosing that it bought back another 780,000 shares at €12.50. Irish Life & Permanent has now completed its buyback programme, having spent about €150 million repurchasing 9.4 million shares, or 4.4 per cent of the issued capital. Other financials were firmer, with AIB 15 cents higher on €10.35 - while Anglo Irish gained 13 cents to €3.60.

Independent saw heavy trading, and almost 5.5 million shares changed hands as the stock gained 12 cents to €1.75. There was also heavy turnover in Ryanair, where 4.5 million shares dealt in Dublin as the stock lost 20 cents to €12.55. Later on Nasdaq, Ryanair traded almost $2 lower, with over 3.5 million ADSs - equivalent to 14 million ordinary shares - having been dealt by midday.

CRH lost 21 cents to €17.50 and Greencore was eight cents firmer on €2.55, while Irish Continental was 25 cents higher on €5.65 as Canada Life emerged with a 3.7 per cent disclosable stake. The main highlight on Nasdaq was continued big gains by Smartforce, which was trading more than $2.75 higher by midday, above $23. The shares are now almost 30 per cent higher on the start of the week.