Heavy trading for financial stocks

STOCKS remained fragile elsewhere on the main European markets.

The ISEQ index, however, closed 0.41 percent higher at 3,813.93. Main focus over yesterday was on strong results presented by CRH. The stock surged 7.2 percent as the company announced pre-tax profits of €856m for the 12 months to December 2002. Ryanair lost 5.88 percent to €5.60

Despite starting the day lower there was heavy trading for the financial stocks. Bank of Ireland added 0.69 percent to €10.27 while Anglo Irish Bank gained 8c to €6.43.