After a very quiet morning, the Irish stock market picked up a little in the afternoon as positive news from the US began to filter through, but brokers noted that volumes remained “anaemic” across the board.
CRH, which has the biggest bearing on the ISEQ index, fell 9 cent to €17.91, while Ryanair, which has the second-largest weighting, remained unchanged, with the result that the index lagged behind European markets.
The banks attracted some interest today, which one broker attributed to the fact that the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan's European investor roadshow is now "going a little bit better". Bank of Ireland traded up almost 7 per cent to just under €1.08 in advance of the publication of its results tomorrow. AIB finished more or less at level pegging with Bank of Ireland at €1.08, a gain on the day of over 7 per cent.
Independent News & Media slipped by more 11 per cent, or 3.5 cent, to close at €0.275, after announcing that it had agreed a "standstill" arrangement with investors over a €200 million bond due to be repaid today.
The construction sector was a bit of a mixed bag - Kingspan marked up 20 cent to €4.60 while Grafton Group fell 16 cent to €2.53.
European equities closed higher as financial stocks climbed on hopes that the recession in top global economies was abating, while energy shares tracked higher crude oil prices. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares closed 2.4 per cent higher at 859.88 points after falling as low as 827.32.
In Frankfurt, the DAX index ended at 4,851.96 points, up 114.46 or 2.42 per cent. In Paris, the CAC-40 index closed at 3,245.39 points, up 76.34 or 2.41 per cent.
Meanwhile in the US, at 6.19pm the Dow Jones industrial average had traded up 187.81 points, or 2.27 percent, at 8,456.45. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 19.86 points, or 2.25 per cent, at 902.74.
Additional reporting: Reuters