The market posted a solid performance yesterday, with shares up by close to 1.5 per cent by the close. Dealers said the Iseq's strength came on the back of a positive performance from US stocks in afternoon trade.

AIB climbed by another 20 cent to €16.60 amid expectations that the bank will soon gain entry to the Euro Stoxx 50 index.

Bank of Ireland caught up on the stellar performance of its rival over the past few days, gaining 26 cent to close at €12.38.

Anglo Irish added 12 cent to end the session at €9.52.

CRH had an excellent day, rising by 65 cent to €20.65. Dealers attributed the increase to index-related business, with much of the 900,000 shares traded changing hands in one block.

Paddy Power added nine cent to finish at €13.60 on volume of 1.15 million shares. At least 500,000 shares are thought to have been linked to a director sale at levels around €13.40, providing a consideration of about €6.7 million. NCB has a price target on the stock of €16.10, based on Tuesday's positive trading update.

IAWS had a good day after suffering losses in the previous session. Shares in the food and agribusiness group group rose by 15 cent to €12.25. Greencore, which is due to release interim numbers next week, shed two cent to finish at €3.27.

Elsewhere, Kingspan was unchanged at €8.85 amid its promotion to the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index after a quarterly review.

DCC did well in the wake of releasing its results on Monday. The stock rose by 15 cent to €16.50. Davy has a 12-month price target of €20.00 on the firm.

Eircom was in demand as its shares climbed by eight cent to €1.86. Speculation continues to surround Eircom's possible purchase of mobile company, Meteor.

Takeover target, Jurys Doyle, added 15 cent to close at €15.10, closer to the €15.25 offer that was spurned by the firm's board earlier this week.