DUBLIN REPORT: Shares jumped by 1.4 per cent, cheered by a strong early performance on Wall Street following a reasonably benign earnings report from Intel.

Settlement Day: July 20th

Dealers said there were signs of investors looking for stocks at the lower levels in Dublin, although much of the activity was confined to the leaders.

Banking stocks were boosted by a sector rally in London and AIB gained 15 cents to €12.65, Bank of Ireland added 10 cents to €11.50, while Irish Life & Permanent was up 15 cents at €13.80. Dealers said volumes were good with some two million AIB shares changing hands while 2.7 million Bank of Ireland shares were traded.

Smaller banking stocks also gained ground with Anglo Irish up 15 cents at €6.30 and First Active adding 20 cents to €4.40.

Leading industrials also recouped lost ground with CRH closing 35 cents higher at €16.20, while Ryanair added 15 cents to €5.85.

Smurfit remained active with more than 14 million shares traded, mainly reflecting hedge fund activity on foot of the Madison Dearborn bid to take the company private. The shares were unchanged at €2.94.

In the technology sector, Iona shares slumped by nearly 8 per cent on the Nasdaq after the company released weak second-quarter results. By contrast, Parthus announced its first ever pro forma profit, driving the share up by more than 10 per cent to 23.5 pence sterling in London.

Also in Britain, Vodafone jumped by 5.5 per cent after better-than-expected results from US handset-maker Motorola.