Financials drive market gains

THE ISEQ Index gained ground yesterday fueled by the strong performance of the financials. The Dublin exchange jumped 71.88 points to close at 7887.40.

AIB rose 24c to €18.89, Bank of Ireland added 15c to €14.60 and Anglo Irish climbed 22c to €13.12. The sector increase came after numerous analysts reported that the Irish financials were considerably undervalued in comparison to their other European counterparts.

In construction, heavyweight CRH added 23c to €28.63 with 1.63 million shares traded. Grafton moved up 19c to €10.89 and Kingspan closed at €13.15, up 8c.