The Irish market ended the week in fine fettle after a day that saw it buck its recent trend of underperformance and, for once, outperform its European peers.
The Iseq index of Irish shares jumped 3.6 per cent, adding €3.3 billion to its market value and bringing its gain for the week to 8.8 per cent. The financials were, as usual, the main contributors to market performance, with Anglo Irish Bank still riding high after its positive results presentation earlier in the week. The shares climbed 7 per cent, or 78 cent, to €11.90, with a massive 26 million units changing hands.
Anglo's shares are up 19 per cent since Tuesday, the day before the bank released its full-year results and reassured the market that it was not experiencing any credit problems.
The other financials were also gainers, with AIB adding 4 per cent, or 60 cent, to €15.30 and Bank of Ireland rising 2.4 per cent, or 25 cent, to €10.90.
Irish Life & Permanent, meanwhile, put in an even stronger performance, climbing 7.8 per cent, or 98 cent, to €13.56.
One Dublin dealer attributed the strong gains to a general recovery in global markets, but also said that the reweighting of the Morgan Stanley Capital International indices, which kicked in at the close of play yesterday, had led to the busier than usual trading in some Irish stocks.
C&C and Independent News & Media (IN&M) - both victims of the reshuffle - saw heavy trading in their stocks.
More than 25 million C&C shares traded as the stock slipped just over 1 per cent, to €3.67, while IN&M closed half a per cent lower at €2.16 on 34 million trades.
Elsewhere, CRH benefited from a positive note by Goldman Sachs, which helped send shares up 3 per cent, or 76 cent, to €25.83.
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