It was quiet on the Irish market today, with light trading volumes due to the closure of US markets because of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Financials were particularly strong on the day, but reflecting their new relatively light weighting on the Irish market, the Iseq only closed up by 52.16 points, or 2.1 per cent, at 2,524.74.
Overall, financials were up by 12 per cent, as the announcement that members of the Irish Association of Investment Managers (IAIM) are also interested in investing in Irish banks led to a spike in share prices across the financial sector today, as the market responded positively to the news of additional interest in the banks.
Irish Life & Permanent was the star performer, adding 28 cent, or 20.2 per cent, to finish the day up at €1.64.
AIB was the next best, adding 37 cent, or 15.4 per cent to climb to €2.77, while Bank of Ireland was also strong, gaining 13 cent, or 9.4 per cent, to close at €1.51.
Ahead of its results next Wednesday, Anglo Irish Bank was the relative underperformer, although it still advanced, adding 5 cent or 5.7 per cent to climb to €0.93.
Elsewhere, construction stock CRH also advanced, albeit marginally, as having traded up as much as €17.38 it finished towards its lows, gaining just 5 cent, or 0.3 per cent, to close at €17.10.
Aer Lingus was also strong on the day, adding 10 cent, or 9.5 per cent to reach €1.13.
Having struggled over the past few days, Smurfit Kappa was back on an upwards trajectory today, gaining 9 cent, or 4.9 per cent to climb to €1.81.
In negative territory on the day were Kingspan, which gave up 8 cent, or 2.4 per cent to fall back to €3.25 and the Kerry Group, which lost 50 cent, or 3.1 per cent to close down at €15.50.
European stocks followed on from the gains set by US markets the previous evening by advancing today, with the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index adding 2.4 per cent to climb to 203.58.
Across Europe, benchmark indexes were up, rising in all 18 western European markets. The FTSE 100 gained 2.1 per cent, while Germany's DAX added 2.4 per cent as Allianz SE and Daimler AG advanced. BNP Paribas increased by 6.7 per cent to €43.10, pushing France's CAC 40 higher, which was up by 2.5 per cent.
