MARKET REPORT:THE MAIN story yesterday was drinks group CC, which reported its interim results.

Although these were disappointing, its share price closed up by 10 cent or 7.6 per cent to €1.45, with brokers believing that the bad news had already been priced in.

The market was also seen to have responded positively to the resignation of CC's chief executive, Maurice Pratt.

Brokers also attributed some of the stock's gains to covering by short-sellers.

There were mixed fortunes for Irish banks yesterday, with rumours circulating of mergers and rights issues leading to divergent fortunes among the stocks.

Irish Life Permanent soared by 32 cents, or 10.8 per cent, to €3.32, while Anglo Irish Bank also finished the day up, increasing by 10 cent or 4.9 per cent to €2.15.

Allied Irish Bank closed the day down by 37 cent, or 7.9 per cent, at €5.02, while Bank of Ireland reversed its fortunes of previous days to put in the worst day among the bank stocks yesterday, as it fell by 23 cent, or 7.8 per cent, to €2.76.

Having announced that Newcourt is considered a likely target of a management buyout, trading was heavy in the stock, as it increased by 2 cents or 10 per cent to € 0.22.

Smurfit Kappa also performed well yesterday, closing up 22 cent or 9.4 per cent at € 2.57, while Kingspan gained 32 cents, or 5.9 per cent, to close up at € 5.77.

CRH also advanced yesterday, adding 43 cent or 2.8 per cent to finish the day at € 15.47.

Heading into negative territory were Fyffes, which lost 1 cent, or 5.7 per cent, to close at €0.26, and construction group Grafton, which declined by 20 cents, or 7.7 per cent, to finish the day down at €2.40.