Anglo Irish edges ahead on mixed day for banks

Dublin Report: The market eased into the weekend yesterday, closing slightly higher on fairly light volume.

The banks were flat as a group, although Anglo Irish was squeezed up at the close. The bank closed 12 cent stronger at €13.60, having changed hands at €13.55 for most of the day.

Dealers said investors have recently been switching out of AIB and into Anglo. AIB closed steady last night, still managing to hold on to its €20.00 level.

Bank of Ireland fell by 10 cent to €14.90, while Irish Life & Permanent moved up by 12 cent to €18.60.

CRH had a poor day, shedding five cent to close at €27.55.

Moving down the board, C&C outshone most other stocks by rising 18 cent to €5.88. The firm, which is due to issue a pre-close update on Monday, was the subject of positive research from Credit Suisse, which set a price target of €6.76.

Eircom was again in demand, with volume of 3.2 million shares in Dublin and 24.3 million in London. Australian investment house, Babcock & Brown, which declared ownership of almost 20 per cent of the company as yesterday began, is thought to have been back in the market. Shares closed up one cent at €2.21. Fyffes was flat at €2.14 as the market looked ahead to full-year results next Friday. Investors expect some news of exceptional costs relating to the DCC insider trading case, as well as an update on the firm's plans to spin off its property assets into a new company.

Kerry, which reports on Tuesday, shed one cent to finish at €18.79. Greencore also fell, losing four cent to close at €3.49.

IAWS, which has strengthened of late, was steady at €14.10.

McInerney, which issued numbers on Thursday, failed to budge from €12.50. NCB raised its 2006 eps estimate on the stock from 127 cent to 135 cent.

Ryanair held up well in spite of a jump in oil prices, closing just two cent weaker at €7.60.

FBD gained 22 cent to reach €40.72 after announcing its €201 million Spanish property sale.