Shares in Dublin rebounded from early weakness to close well up on the day, boosted by the strong rise on Wall Street after benign US inflation figures and strong gains on international stock markets. Most of the gains were notched up by financial shares, which had under-performed in recent trading, with mixed performances from the industrial stocks.

Among the financials, Bank of Ireland traded strongly and reached a high for the day of 768p before closing up 10p on 765p, while AIB was 6p higher on 560p. Irish Permanent was 4p higher on 604p, while Irish Life was 2p higher on 332p.

Irish Life reports half-year results tomorrow, with analysts looking to a 20 per cent increase in embedded value profits to around £60 million, with a big increase in investment earnings and the stake in the Hungarian bank K&H boosting earnings. Dealers believe that the long-running dispute with field staff may cost Irish Life around £3 million.

Industrials were mixed, with Smurfit benefiting from good August box shipment figures to close up 103/4p on 2163/4p. CRH, however, was 5p lower, while Kerry - where rights issue speculation persists - was also 5p lower on 740p. Anglo Irish Bank was 31/4 p higher on 100p, Green gained 3p to 368p, while Independent traded busily before closing down 5p on 400p.

Gilt prices were sharply higher, boosted the bond auction, the positive outcome to the Ecofin meeting and the lower-than-expected US inflation figures.