Banks speculation boosts market

THE Dublin market rose yesterday as speculation gathered pace about potential recapitalisation and consolidation of Irish banks, but fell back later in the day.

At one stage, the market was more than 3% up; however, a weaker afternoon session saw the ISEQ index slip to post a minor daily increase of 9.89 points, to 2,320.71.

Bank of Ireland released a brief statement yesterday confirming it had several approaches from unnamed parties with a view to investing in the group. On the back of this, the share price rose 24c to €1.25.