The Irish market enjoyed a firm day's trading, reflecting the strength of European markets. Most of the leading stocks were ahead on medium-sized volumes of shares traded in a day which saw the ISEQ close 51.17 points up at 5,931.41.

The UK market was up by around 1 per cent, driven largely by a surge in the banking sector. The trend was replicated in Dublin, with financials all finishing the day ahead.

Bank of Ireland, which saw its share price take a hammering last week, continued its upward trend this week.

Yesterday it was 3 per cent stronger. It picked up 32 cents to €10.45 with more than 1.1 million shares changing hands.

AIB, which has been performing slightly better over the past number of days, was trading up just short of 1 per cent yesterday with a similar number of shares traded. It finished nine cents stronger at €12.48. Anglo Irish Bank also put in a strong day, climbing 15 cents to €3.95 on volumes of more than 650,000 shares. Irish Life & Permanent jumped 11 cents to €13.24, while First Active gained one cent to €3.26.

Elsewhere Fyffes, which had languished recently, saw some refreshed buying interest and rallied throughout the day, picking up six cents to close at €1.21 with more than 1.46 million shares traded. However, many of the big price swings reflect the fact that the market is into summer trading and many stocks are not as liquid as they otherwise might be. Elan advanced 55 cents to €63.05 with just under 49,000 shares traded, while Kerry Group picked up eight cents to €14.03 with just more than 48,000 shares changing hands. Riverdeep gained 15 cents to €5.25 on a volume of 21,000 shares.