Market gains ahead of US meeting

THE Irish market crept further forward yesterday as the Government’s bank deposit guarantee initiative brought some stability and further healthy gains for bank stocks for a second day running. The ISEQ index closed up 90.66 points at 3,641.29 as all eyes turn to the US Senate and the US rescue package.

The bank stocks moved forward en masse, as AIB and Bank of Ireland added 10c and 35c to €6 and €4.30. Anglo-Irish gained almost another 8% to end the day at €4.15. Irish Life and Permanent continued the trend up 65.9c to €5,59.

In construction, CRH fell 10c to €14.90 with over 2 million shares traded. Grafton Group and Kingspan made modest ground adding 7c and 5.2c to €3.30 and €6.45.