The Irish market continued its recent climb yesterday, adding another half a per cent and rising to its highest level in more than two weeks. Volumes though were quiet as some investors took advantage of the Labor Day holiday in the US to stay away.

Anglo provided most of the momentum, rising 1.2 per cent, or 16 cent, to end the day at €13.86. It also commanded decent interest, with 4.8 million shares changing hands. The bank will issue a trading update tomorrow.

Elsewhere activity was much quieter, though dealers said attention was still on AIB, as investors anticipated confirmation that the bank had fallen out of the Euro-stoxx50 index.

As a result it was the only Irish financial stock to decline on the day, and volume was very light with fewer than 900,000 shares changing hands.

Dealers said they too were still unsure what the full impact would be on the stock, though it has already been acknowledged that several funds will be forced to sell the shares as a result.

Yesterday the shares slipped 2 cent, to close at €18.72.

Elsewhere Kingspan was also a loser, despite reporting better than expected interim results.

The shares closed down 1.7 per cent, or 13 cent, at €18.87, a decline dealers attributed to the significant gains seen at the end of last week.

Fyffes also released its first-half figures yesterday, although dealers said the company had simply put a rubber stamp on earlier expectations and as a result the shares closed unchanged at 80 cent after earlier rising 2.5 per cent.

Independent News & Media had a bad day. Its shares fell 2.9 per cent, or 10 cent, to €3.35, a drop one dealer linked to talk of deteriorating business conditions in the South African market.