Market pushes to 8,000 mark

THE Dublin exchange climbed 35.9 points to 7996.92 yesterday.

AIB gained 12c to €18.97. Bank of Ireland was unchanged at €14.70. Irish Life and Permanent and Anglo Irish were 24c and 25c higher at the closing bell.

CRH was €28.90 finishing up 6c. Grafton Group announced that trading for the first four months was in line with expectations at its AGM yesterday and closed down 11c to €11.09. Kingspan Group jumped 20c to €13.91 with over 2.67 million shares changing hands.