The Irish stock market closed modestly higher yesterday, as most of the leading stocks turned in positive performances despite a weaker tone in overseas markets.

Ryanair was among the more active stocks, adding 11 cent or 1.7 per cent to €6.65 despite the high price of oil.

Davy Stockbrokers, which has a price target of 800 cent on the shares, has been advising investors to take advantage of the recent drift in the share price to get into the stock ahead of the release of second-quarter results in November.

In the banking sector, dealers reported some interest in switching out of AIB and into Bank of Ireland. Shares in the latter recovered from Monday's weakness to close 14 cent higher at €13.10 while AIB added 10 cent to €17.90.

Irish Life & Permanent also found favour with investors, gaining 15 cent, or 1 per cent, to €14.85 but Anglo Irish fared less well, shedding seven cent to €10.88.

Shares in Independent News & Media added two cent to €2.49 as its 40 per cent owned Australian associate, APN, announced a 14 per cent increase in first-half pretax profits and said it remained on course to deliver double digit profit growth this year.

Volume in Jurys Doyle was light, with about 120,000 shares changing hands as the stock edged up by two cent to €17.72 as dealers said investors continued to await further developments on the bid front.

Kingspan bounced back from Monday's 3 per cent fall, gaining 10 cent or nearly 1 per cent to €10.45 while McInerney also regained some ground, closing 12 cent higher at €8.42.

Drinks and snacks group C&C gave up 10 cent to close at €4.10 but dealers said it was showing signs of stabilising around that level ahead of the release of a trading update at the end of the month.

The ISEQ Exchange Traded Fund tracked the overall market upward, closing three cent higher at €13.55.

Settlement Date: August 19th