The Irish market kept its head today as bourses around Europe lost their cool and retreated from recent highs.
The Iseq index wavered during the afternoon session but regained its footing by the closing bell to finish virtually unchanged 2,962.21. This unexciting performance was enough to leave the Iseq ahead of several European indexes which spent the day languishing in the red.
Financial stocks managed to shrug off a warning by ratings agency Fitch that Irish banks will find fundraising a challenge once the blanket Government guarantee expires at the end of September.
Bank of Ireland picked up in terms of volume today. However although it advanced towards 89 cent, its gains had evaporated by the close, leaving it flat at 86.5 cent.
Although most of the trading activity in the banking sector was concentrated on Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Banks (AIB) proved more liquid than it has been, with about 2.5 million shares changing hands in Dublin. AIB, which will come under the spotlight today with the release of its interim results, tipped a high point of €1 during the session. It sank back a touch by the close but was still 1.5 per cent ahead on the day.
Irish Life & Permanent pushed on by more than 3 per cent, or almost six cent, to just under €1.84.
This resilience in the banking names was counteracted by a weak performance by index heavyweight CRH. The stock came under pressure after the market absorbed a disappointing trading update from its US peer Vulcan Materials after the US close on Monday.
CRH succumbed to the negative sentiment in the building materials sector and gave up 1.4 per cent, or 22.5 cent, to close just below €16.31.
Germany's DAX rose 0.3 per cent, while France's CAC 40 declined 0.1 per cent.