Market Report: The Irish market ended the week higher than it started, though it slipped slightly yesterday with a mixed performance from its members.

Settlement Date: May 25th

Upward moves by Anglo Irish Bank, Ryanair and Jurys failed to offset declines by Greencore, AIB and Elan.

Jurys extended its gains ending the day up 10 cent at €15.50, 89 cent ahead of its closing price last Friday. Speculation continues that another bidder may emerge for the hotel operator, and dealers are also awaiting an update on the Precinct bid, which the company's board rejected earlier this week.

Ryanair continued its positive performance this week, ending the day up 5 cent at €6.23 on decent volume.

Anglo Irish closed at €9.94, up 29 cent on the day. Dealers say demand for the stock remains high.

Elsewhere, United Drug gained 5 cent to €3.50.

Moving in the other direction, Greencore dropped 7 cent, ending the day at €3.20 on concern that the company's profits may be hurt by a new EU sugar regime. Earlier this week, a senior EU source told The Irish Times that EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel was ready to put forward a 39 per cent cut in the support price for sugar.

C&C, which dealers believe could be a beneficiary of the new sugar regime, failed to react and ended the day down 2 cent at €3.18.

Likewise, Irish Life & Permanent closed down 7 cent at €13.55, despite issuing a positive trading update. At its annual general meeting yesterday, the bank said 2005 has started well and it expects demand for its banking and life assurance products to remain strong.

CRH dropped 7 cent to €20.53, while Kerry Group ended the day down 20 cent at €19.85. Elan fell 14 cent to €5.60.

Bank of Ireland ended the day down 2 cent at €12.38 and AIB, which rose earlier in the week, fell 20 cent to close at €16.30.