Financial stocks led European markets higher today, and the upward momentum spread to the Irish Stock Exchange, which gained almost 4 per cent.
This positive sentiment was primarily due to UK bank Barclays, which said in a statement this morning that it had experienced a strong start to 2009. This follows similar comments from US banking giants Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup last week.
As a result, banks were the big movers on the Irish market, with Bank of Ireland marking up almost 9 cent to €0.367 and AIB gaining 7 cent to close at just over €0.58.
Irish Life & Permanent lagged behind the two main banks, but still managed to add over 5 per cent to its share price to finish at almost €0.77.
Brokers reported good buying interest in CRH in advance of the expiration of its rights issue on Wednesday. The market heavyweight bounced by more than 5 per cent to just under €15.53.
European shares closed higher for a fifth consecutive day. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares was up 2.7 percent higher to close at 720.88 points.
London's FTSE 100 was up 110.31 points at 3,863.99. In Frankfurt, the DAX index ended at 4,044.54 points, up 90.94 or 2.30 percent, while in Paris the CAC-40 index closed at 2,791.66 points, up 86.03 or 3.18 percent.
(Additional reporting: Reuters)