Market Report: It's the weekend. Time to hit the pub and knock back another pint of Bulmers - or Magners if you are in the UK - and boost the profits of drinks group C&C, which yesterday released a trading statement so positive it added almost 12 per cent to its share price.
The much-fancied share continued its intoxicating 2006 success story by happily climbing €1.03 to €9.75. The stock started the year with a share price of €5.50.
In a good day for international markets, the Iseq finished up 47 points, or just over half a per cent. Nobody could quite compete with C&C, but several other stocks had a good day.
CRH, which is on an investment roadshow in the UK, closed up 33 cent at €27.40. Oil concerns were forgotten as Ryanair added 10 cent to its share price, closing at €7.60, a rise of 1.3 per cent.
Grafton was another notable climber, finishing the day up over 2 per cent at €10.90, a rise of 22 cent, on the back of strong interest from buyers.
A handful of smaller shares also enjoyed a sudden rush of activity as AGI Therapeutics added 7 cent to its price to finish up more than 4 per cent at €1.75 and after six weeks of inactivity. Irish Estates boosted its share price by 25 cent to finish at €3.65, a gain of more than 7 per cent.
The biggest loser of the day was Independent News & Media, which finished down 4.8 per cent at €2.38, having shed 12 cent from its price.
Elan lost 42 cent to close at €12.58, while Fyffes slipped 4 cent to €1.60.
It was a day of mixed fortunes for the banks. Irish Life & Permanent finished up 20 cent at €20.30, ahead of what is expected to be an upbeat set of interim results next Tuesday, while Anglo Irish Bank climbed 39 cent to finish on €13.19.
However, Bank of Ireland added just 3 cent to finish at €14.83, while AIB closed down 12cent at €20.28.
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