Irish shares closed marginally higher after a day of thin trading due to Thursday's US Thanksgiving holiday and yesterday's half day on Wall Street. Bank of Ireland was one of the main movers, gaining 30 cents or 3 per cent to €10.35, on foot of a number of programme trades in London.

Dealers said the shares stood to benefit from changes in the calculation of the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) index, widely used by investors in determining their asset allocations.

From the end of the month, MSCI will start to replace the current full market capitalisation system for calculating index weightings with free-float adjusted weightings.

Property group Green, which is also expected to benefit by inclusion in the index, closed 12 cents higher at €6.30.

Elsewhere in the financial sector, AIB lost 2 cents to close at €11.38 while Irish Life & Permanent shed 15 cents to €12.10.

Among industrial stocks, dealers reported good activity in CRH, which closed down eight cents at €17.75. No-frills airline Ryanair, which announced a second continental European base outside Frankfurt on Thursday, was down two cents at €12.78.

Schroder Salomon Smith Barney cut its investment rating on the airline to "neutral" from "outperform" on valuation grounds, after the shares reached the bank's target price of €12.60.

But the investment bank said it was still positive on the company and its prospects, and recommended that investors continue to hold in the long term.

Elan gained $0.55 to $44.75 on the New York Stock Exchange. In Dublin, the shares closed 60 cents higher at €51.10.