Market Report: The market closed the week with a show of strength yesterday, driven forward mostly by a recovery in the two main banks. The two stocks had been the focus of some heavy US-led programme trading earlier in the week, but this action appears to have reached its close.

Having lost most ground in previous days, AIB was the firmer of the two as it rose 28 cents to 12.68. The bank said it had been in the market for 900,000 of its shares on Thursday at an average price of 12.40. Volume was heavy again yesterday, with some 3.7 million units traded.

Bank of Ireland added five cents to close at €10.55 as next week's interim results draw closer.

Irish Life & Permanent finished 10 cents stronger at 12.40, apparently unaffected by reports of a possible strike at Permanent TSB. Anglo Irish Bank climbed by 14 cents to 10.30.

In the industrials, CRH, which is also thought to have featured highly in programme-driven sales earlier in the week, strengthened by 19 cents to close at 15.64.

Ryanair was pushed back in early trade as investors digested reports of a possible negative ruling on Charleroi but found some support in the evening before closing six cents weaker at €6.90.

DCC dropped one cent to 11.40 as the market prepared for Monday's results.

Galen, which is also reporting next week, closed unchanged at £7.22 sterling in London, where it is mainly traded.

Horizon jumped 10 per cent to 88 cents on relatively low volume as the market once again looked to the possibility of corporate action at the firm.

Fyffes attracted significantly more attention, with 2.1 million shares traded before the fruit group closed one cent lower at 1.51.