Early gains eroded in turbulent trade

THE Irish market showed its approval of a Eurozone initiative yesterday to curb any further breakdown of the money markets and the banking industry, as the ISEQ index jumped more than 5% in early trading.

As the session wore on however, investors moved to take profits, leading to a significant falloff. The market closed up 71.22 points at 2,942.47.

Financial stocks had a very mixed day with Bank of Ireland and AIB showing encouraging early gains, only to plunge in afternoon trading with losses of 35c and 79c to €2.15 and €3.44. Irish Life and Permanent and Anglo-Irish did manage to remain in positive territory tacking on 11.4c and 3.5c to end the day at €3.65 and €2.29.