Spurred by the gains on Wall Street before the weekend and the belated move by the Japanese government to put some order on its banking industry, the Irish stock market bounded ahead to its biggest ever one-day gain and kept pace with the advances notched up on most European markets.
However, just as the market has fallen heavily on relatively small volumes, yesterday's 6 per cent rise was not accompanied by any sizeable trading, with prices bid rather than traded up. Financial shares, as expected, were major beneficiaries of the renewed buying interest, although industrials were also firmer.
Among the financials, the controversy over DIRT and its non-resident accounts did not dent AIB, which closed up 50p on 885p, while Bank of Ireland did even better, adding 76p to £10.50. Elsewhere, First Active was 10p higher on 275p, Irish Life gained 32 1/2 p to 445p, Irish Permanent was 24p higher on 770p, while Anglo Irish gained 5 1/2p to 139 1/2p.
Among industrials, Smurfit jumped 20p to 110p in very thin trading but there was no obvious reason for the sudden rise. Wall Street failed to respond with any massive enthusiasm to the confirmation of the JS Corp/Stone merger although JS Corp managed to inch ahead fractionally yesterday.
CRH was boosted by the rise in London and corporate activity in its sector and was 45p higher on 825p.
Ryanair benefited from its $4 rise on Wall Street on Friday and jumped 50p to 365p, Greencore gained 15p to 240p, while Kerry was 15p firmer on 780p. Tullow continued to recover from the heavy selling of last week and was 5p higher on 57p.
On Nasdaq, technology shares were stronger, with CBT, Iona, Esat, Saville and Elan all rising sharply. The only exception was Trinity Biotech which was marginally below its overnight level.
