Record day despite poor performance in UK, US

The Irish stock market achieved another record day yesterday despite a poor performance in Britain and the US.

The ISEQ index gained a further three quarters of a percentage point to end at 6,071.61, having hit a high of 6,123.82 led by strong demand for financial stocks, particularly Bank of Ireland. Sentiment towards the financial sector was buoyed by the recent quarter-point cut in interest rates by the European Central Bank (ECB) and positive results from Bank of Ireland. The bank ended the day at €11.24, up 36 cents. Allied Irish Banks gained in sympathy, ending up 33 cents at €13.53.

In the industrial sector, Smurfit continued to see good demand, although volumes traded were small relative to Thursday's buying spree. Around seven million Smurfit shares changed hands on Thursday with demand spilling over into Friday but supply dried up. Smurfit's share price closed flat at €2.15.

CRH continued to curry favour with the market hitting a new high of €20.03.

There was muted response to the news that Eircom shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of the sale of the company's mobile phone division Eircell to Vodafone. Eircom closed down four cents at €2.61 after 1.5 billion votes were cast in favour of the first phase of the deal which will demerge Eircell from Eircom. The result was considered a foregone conclusion as the institutional shareholders voted in favour of the sale.

There was no reaction to the slight rise in Irish inflation. The annual rate of inflation rose to 5.6 per cent last month, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office. This is the third consecutive monthly rise. The rate was 5.4 per cent in March. Consumer prices rose by 0.9 per cent in April after a 0.8 per cent increase in March.