Irish stocks show fight

IRISH stocks bounced back yesterday finishing in positive territory for the first time in 12 days.

The ISEQ index closed up almost 1% at 2,052.86 points helped by easing fears over bank nationalisations in the United States.

In the construction sector, CRH added 52c to e16.07. Kingspan progressed 6c to e2.10 and Grafton Group moved up 6c to e1.32.

Ryanair dipped 1c to e2.99, while Aer Lingus jumped 4c to 79c. Also Elan decreased 13c to e4.85 while Kerry Group fell 5c to e14.65.

In London the FTSE closed up 0.85% at 3,849, clawing back some losses from earlier in the week.

RBS, Britain’s biggest state-controlled bank which reports earnings today, and Lloyds climbed more than 4% on reports the government will insure £500 billion (e558bn) of loans and investments.

A measure of bank shares jumped the most in almost a month as Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the US would use supervision instead of shareholder control to guide banks.

“There has been so much bad news priced into UK banks that the hope is some kind of base has been reached,” said David Morrison, market strategist at GFT in London.

“Bernanke’s comments were a big relief for investors but no one has been able to fully articulate what will happen next.”

German stocks dropped for a fourth straight day, sending the DAX Index to the lowest level since September 2004.

Earlier in Tokyo, the Nikkei closed up 193 at 7,461 and the Hang Seng gained 207 to 13,005.