The Irish stock market was up almost 2 per cent at its peak today but slipped back to close up just 8.53 points at 2,748.72.
This was mainly due to the movement of the Iseq index’s largest component CRH, which hit €17.45 at one point but weakened somewhat over the course of the afternoon to finish at €17.04.
Meanwhile, stocks links with troubled property developer Liam Carroll behaved counter-intuitively, with food group Greencore up almost 5 per cent at €1.11 and ferry operator Irish Continental Group gaining 2.5 per cent to €10.25, albeit on very light volumes.
AIB and Bank of Ireland, both of which have large exposures arising from Mr Carroll’s developments, came under pressure, slipping by 5.7 per cent and 4 per cent respectively to €1.63 and €1.58.
Irish Life & Permanent was the most actively traded of the financials on the day with brokers reporting strong two-way interest, but it finished the session unchanged at €2.90.
DIY retail group Grafton, which owns the Atlantic Homecare and Woodies DIY chain, proved the strongest performer on the day, gaining 5.7 per cent - or 15 cent - to close at €2.78.
In London, the FTSE 100 closed at 4,481.17 points, up 37.55 or 0.85 per cent. Frankfurt's DAX index ended at 5,093.97 points, up 63.82 or 1.27 per cent, while in Paris the CAC-40 index closed at 3,302.89 points, up 31.95 or 0.98 per cent.