EVERYTHING was in the Irish market's favour yesterday and the ISEQ jumped more than 1 per cent to close just 44 points short of last April's alltime high. Given the strength of Wall Street last night, there is every possibility that the market may scale new highs today - especially if the Dow manages to break through the 10,000 mark. The departure of "Red Oskar" from the German finance ministry is seen as another plus for the markets.
Needless to say, it was the large capitalisations that benefited from the strength of international markets. AIB rebounded from recent profittaking to close up 20 cents on €15.30 (£12.05), while Bank of Ireland was 40 cents higher on €18.70 (£14.73). CRH jumped 15 cents to another new high of €17.15 (£13.51).
It was not all upward movement, however. Abbey - one of the best performers this year - lost 25 cents to €4.00 (£3.15) on profit-taking, while Fyffes drifted three cents lower to €2.22 (£1.75) - below the level at which the group has bought back shares in recent months.
Anglo Irish Bank was up 5 1/2 cents on €2.73 (£2.15) as chief executive, Mr Sean FitzPatrick indicated that the bank was unlikely to be a bidder for ICC if the price tag was £250 million-plus. Kerry continued to benefit from its bumper results and dealt up 20 cents to €12.50 (£9.84), while Ryanair was 13 cents higher on €7.15 (£5.63).
Seafield did not trade from its overnight 17 cents (13p) despite news that Imari has bought a 5.4 per cent stake.
On Nasdaq, the only Irish mover of note was Esat, which was trading over $2 lower at the Irish close. Esat is expected to be on a five-strong shortlist for Cablelink.
