It was the turn of Irish Life & Permanent to take centre stage on the Iseq index of Irish shares today, as it published a downbeat interim management statement and held its agm.
But despite the bank's gloomy conclusion that rising unemployment has resulted in further increases in arrears and provision for impairments, the stock climbed 6.4 per cent to €2.60.
It was a strong day, too, for AIB, which rose 7.96 per cent to €1.00, but Bank of Ireland failed to join in the mood, and fell 1.8 per cent to €1.01.
Dealers confessed to being surprised by the positive movements given the tone of Irish Life's statement, but concluded that investors simply want to get the bad news out of the way and move forward.
Overall, the Iseq index has outperformed other markets this week and it climbed 2.9 per cent in today's session.
However, it is still down 1.6 per cent on the week as a result of losses on Monday and Wednesday.
The eventful week ended relatively quietly with pretty low volumes of shares traded.
However, there was a bit of action in building materials group Kingspan, with one of its major shareholders - Generation Investment Management, a group co-founded by former US presidential candidate Al Gore - doubling its stake in the company to 10 per cent.
There was a sharp fall in AGI Therapeutics, which closed down 68 per cent at 15 cent, after disappointing clinical trials results meant it had to stop development work on Rezular, its treatment for irritable bowel syndrome.
The food and beverage sector enjoyed a buoyant day's trading, with C&C leading the pack, up 7.8 per cent to €2.15. Kerry Group also jumped, finishing up 6.3 per cent at €16.95, while there was also a nice rally in Glanbia, which closed up 6 per cent at €2.24.
However, Greencore slipped back 1.9 per cent to 96 cent.