Market in strong fightback

THE ISEQ index closed up 126.96 points at 5,416.07 yesterday led by a strong surge in financial stocks mirroring the advances made by the London and European exchanges.

The banking sector enjoyed a good day with news that Barclay’s Bank is raising £4.5bn via an issue of 1.58 billion shares. AIB closed up 22c at €9.95, Bank of Ireland gained 23c to €6.13. Irish Life & Permanent added 28c to €8.88 and Anglo Irish Bank jumped 33c to €6.95.

Construction giant CRH surged back up to €18.86, an increase of €1.16, Kingspan gained 10c to €6.22, while Grafton added 4c to €4.02.