Market Report:Microsoft's $44.6 billion (€30 billion) offer for Yahoo yesterday gave stock markets worldwide a very important signal: after the credit crunch hiatus, merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is back on the table.
The Iseq promptly rebounded in line with European markets, closing up 2.6 per cent.
Locally, the major news of the day was a "robust" trading statement from Anglo Irish Bank. Its share price was one of the biggest climbers of the day, surging more than 5 per cent to €9.90, with 9.9 million shares trading.
The other banks also did well, with decent volume of four million in Irish Life & Permanent pushing up the stock by 7 per cent to €11.45. Bank of Ireland posted a near 4 per cent climb and AIB added 2.8 per cent.
Drinks group C&C was another good performer, with news earlier in the week that it has appointed a former Coors sales director to head its Magners cider operation in Britain going down well with investors. The stock duly climbed 6 per cent yesterday to close at €4.75.
Dragon Oil also outperformed, climbing 5.78 per cent to close up 30 cent at €5.49.
Ryanair was one of the handful of stocks to go against the positive trend. Its share price sank 5.3 per cent ahead of its third-quarter performance update on Monday morning.
Dealers said shareholders were spooked in the final hour of trading, as rumours circulated that Monday's briefing to analysts might contain a few unwelcome surprises. The stock traded as low as €3.50 in the afternoon, before closing at €3.60, down 20 cent.
Independent News & Media also went against the grain, falling 3.6 per cent to a closing price of €2.19, but there was no significant volume traded in the stock after Denis O'Brien's purchases on Thursday.
