Financials turn in solid performance
The financials had a solid day with AIB and Anglo-Irish adding 17c and 15c respectively. Bank of Ireland was steady at 10.78, while Irish Life and Permanent slipped 5c to 12.75. Elsewhere, budget carrier Ryanair added 2c to 6.62.
The pharmaceutical sector continued its eventful week. Trinity Biotech jumped 1.11 to 4.11 with news of the approval by the US Food and Drugs Administration of a simple-to-use HIV test. Meanwhile Elan was down 7c to 5.48 after it announced on St Stephen's day that it had agreed to sell its European sales and marketing business to a British company. They also announced the sale of certain rights to two other products.
