Market shows strong gains

THE ISEQ index of Irish shares enjoyed a huge surge closing up 326.47 at 4,416.03 as the banks staged a powerful rally to mirror the other European bourses.

Financial stocks performed very strongly with very good interim results from Societe Generale and Standard Chartered. AIB was up €1.03 at €9.04. Bank of Ireland gained 57c to €5.93. Anglo Irish Bank moved up to €5.71, a rise of 64c while Irish Life & Permanent added 57c to €6.

In the construction sector, index heavyweight CRH jumped 96c to €17.11. Grafton Group increased 33c to €3.89 while Kingspan rose 80c to finish the day at €7.32.