IT WAS a busy day on the Dublin market with most stocks looking a bit better on the back of good investor interest.
The financials led the way, with the two banks forging well ahead by close of business.
AIB finished up 4 1/2p at 417p, having traded as high as 418 1/2p in the afternoon. The bank was the subject of an upbeat brokers' report yesterday from Merrill Lynch. It said it believed AIB was well placed to continue to benefit from the strength of the Irish economy and had substantial scope to increase both the quantity and quality of its Irish earnings over time.
Beyond Ireland, Merrill Lynch said First Maryland offered scope for "profitable development" over the next few years, assuming that a suitable acquisition came along, although it warned that the medium term outlook was less clear.
The shares, it said, have been "reasonable" performers but did not appear highly rated against either their Irish or British peers. Merrill Lynch viewed AIB as an inexpensive means of gaining exposure to the Irish market and set its price objective at 450p per share.
Bank of Ireland also had a good run, gaining 3p to 578p, just off highs of 579p earlier in the day.
Other financials fared well on the day, with Irish Life up 4p at 284p, Woodchester up 6p to 236p and New Ireland up 25p to 975p. Irish Permanent remained unchanged at 505p.
Among the leading industrials, CRH managed a strong performance, adding a further 8p to close at 636p. Smurfit, however, was unable to shake off investor concerns about the future outlook for the paper sector, with the share down 2 1/2p to 176 1/2p in busy trading.
The second liners also had a good day, with Clondalkin up 10p to 500p, Independent gained 7p to 312p while Green Property put on 5p to 250p.
In the food sector, Kerry added 10p to close at 640p, Greencore moved up 3p to 388p, Fyffes went a penny better to 115p and Waterford Floods was unchanged at 87p.
In other news, Irish Continental Group came in with lower than expected results for last year, showing a drop in pre tax profits from £11 million to £10.5 million.
