Irish market up 1% in lacklustre day's trading

In a lacklustre day of trading, the Irish market closed up by 35.25 points, or almost 1 per cent today, to 4,345.0. Gains for the week were 63.16 points, or 1.5 per cent.

Overall trading volumes were light, and apart from CRH and the banks, it was a quiet day in terms of volume.

Although the proposed sale of Lehman Brothers to a consortium including Bank of America lifted stocks across the water, it provided little comfort to Irish banks, which finished flat on the day. Having started off in reasonable territory, with most adding between 1 and 1.5 per cent this morning, the banks drifted back in the afternoon.

Irish Life & Permanent was the star performer and has been pretty resilient relative to the other banks since its results. It advanced by 20 cent or 3.1 per cent to close up at €6.75, while AIB also finished the day up, gaining 13 cent or 1.7 per cent to climb to €7.98.

Although the main financials trading volume was in Bank of Ireland, it lost 8 cent or 1.5 per cent to finish the day at €5.02, with Anglo Irish Bank also finishing the day down 3 cent or 0.6 per cent at €5.04.

Leisure group Paddy Power suffered following Goldman Sachs' decision to take it off its conviction list, dropping 40 cent or 3.1 per cent to €12.70.

Food group Kerry continues to perform well, as it benefits from easing cost pressures and a stronger dollar. It finished the day up 20 cent or 1 per cent to €21.00.

A stronger dollar is also helping CRH, which yesterday advanced by 46 cent or 2.5 per cent to €19.10, amidst decent trading volumes.

Aer Lingus performed strongly, as it benefited from falling oil prices and continuing concern over airlines such as Alitalia. It finished the day up 6 cent, or almost 4 per cent, to €1.59. Ryanair also gained on the day, closing up 3 cent or 1.1 per cent to €2.74, as the collapse of the XL Leisure Group will help create a more benign competitive environment for the airline.

After a tough week, Dragon Oil and Tullow Oil finished with a little bounce. Dragon finished the day up 19 cent or 6.8 per cent at €3.00, while Tullow Oil

In the US, stocks opened down, and by mid-morning the S&P 500 had fallen by 1.1 per cent at 1,234.96, but recovered slightly following the announcement of a possible takeover of Lehman Brothers. By 12.34, the index had fallen back 0.59s point to 1,248.46.

In Europe, stocks advanced for the first time in four days, on the back of speculation of a takeover of troubled bank Lehman Brothers, which lifted financial stocks. UBS AG climbed by 2.7 per cent, while Barclays Bank advanced by 3.6 per cent. Overall, the FTSE 100 rose by 1.9 per cent, while in Paris the CAC 40 finished the day up 2 per cent and in Frankfurt, the DAX was up 0.9 per cent on the day.