Smurfit, CRH and Ryanair lift Iseq

The Irish market outperformed its peers on a day when the news was dominated by the fallout from the failure of part of the Liam Carroll-controlled Zoe Group to win court protection from its creditors and Smurfit Kappa reporting an 88 per cent fall in earnings per share.

The Iseq index of Irish shares closed up 1.57 per cent at 2,892.21 with boosts in the value of Smurfit, CRH and Ryanair lifting its performance.

In London, the benchmark FTSE 100 closed up just over 45 points at 4716.76, an increase of just under 1 per cent. Across Europe, the Dow Jones Stoxx 600, which tracks leading shares in 18 markets was up 1 per cent at 228.65, aided by a strong performance from German utility, Eon and British builder Balfour Beatty.

In Dublin, the banks opened down but recovered ground during the day. Dealers said their performance was not hit by the news that a liquidator is set to take over part of leading property developer Liam Carroll's empire, but instead their prices responded to movements in the US.

A sell off in New York on Monday night hit their prices early in the day, but a recovery across the Atlantic at lunchtime, which was subsequently mirrored in Europe, lifted the financials towards the end of the day.

AIB dipped by almost 3.3. per cent early today, but closed 1.84 per cent up at €2.047, with around 1.7 million shares traded in Dublin.

Bank of Ireland's fall was sharper in the morning, with over 4 per cent wiped off the institution's value. However it also recovered, and by the close of business it added 0.4 per cent to €2.022. Close to 1.9 million of the bank's shares changed hands in Dublin.

Paper and packaging group, Smurfit Kappa, was responsible for the only corporate news of note. While the company reported a 73 per cent fall in pre-tax profits, news that management intends increasing the cost of container board, a key product, drew investors to the stock, which added 8.24 per cent to close at €4.60, volumes were reasonable, with 2.16 million shares traded in Dublin.