Iseq gains on bailout hopes

European stock markets rallied today in anticipation of a solution to Ireland’s debt crisis and in Dublin too, the ISEQ gained.

There were good volumes in what brokers described as a “step change” that anticipated a favourable banking deal at the weekend. With new eyes in town - specialists in restructuring, market sentiment belied optimism of something conclusive by Monday.

Following comments from our Central Bank governor that aid worth "tens of billions" of euro was expected, shares in Irish banks were mixed in the morning as they processed events with AIB hardest hit falling 4.5 per cent to €0.38 cent.

Ahead of its interim management statement due out today however, AIB sharesgained 4.52 per cent during the day to close at €0.41.

Irish Life & Permanent meanwhile saw its stock rise throughout the day to close up 9.3 per cent or €0.08 cent at €0.94 cent.

There was decent buying on Bank of Ireland with volumes of over ten million bringing the bank up 7.5 per cent in the course of the day to finish at €0.43.

Construction was up all around with the market reacting positively to the earlier statement from Grafton that its revenues to the end of October rose marginally to €1.7 billion. The building materials group ended the session up 4.16 per cent to €3.17 while CRH, following recent investor meetings, had a big day with accelerated buying in the afternoon driving stocks up 6.34 per cent to close at €14.76.

Greencore, though not as active as on Wednesday, maintained its impressive gains for the most part, only dropping slightly by 1.64 per cent to finish at €1.31.

There was positive news for most European airlines on the markets today with Ryanair’s stock feeling the benefit too, rising 3.16 per cent to finish the day €3.86.

Fruit importer Fyffes saw heavy volumes throughout the day and ended the session at €0.32 or 1.56 per cent up while Independent News and Media also saw good volumes, rising 5.17 per cent to close at €0.57.