Market ends week with gain

SHARES in Dublin ended in positive territory for the first day in five. The ISEQ index closed up 42.24 to 6035.71.

In the financial sector Bank of Ireland fell 2c despite reporting robust pre-tax profits of €1.3 billion yesterday. Market leader AIB also fell 2c to €16.30. On the second line Anglo-Irish gave up 7c with over 2.9 million shares changing hands. Irish Life and Permanent bucked the trend climbing 14c to €13.19 after revealing it had raised $600m from a fundraising exercise in an Asian-targeted issue.

It was also a positive day for the construction sector. CRH jumped 32c to €19.80; Grafton added 10c to €8.40, while McInerney and Kingspan were also higher by 5c.