Strong gains by banks ease ISEQ towards the 3,000 point mark

STRONG gains for the banks and other key Irish stocks dragged the ISEQ back up towards the 3,000 point mark as it reclaimed nearly 4% after a poor showing in the past week.

Despite posting a near €1 billion pre-tax loss for its first half, Bank of Ireland’s claim that it is beginning to see signs of a slowdown in the economic downturn in its core markets and that it doesn’t think its previous estimates of future loan losses will worsen helped its share price to a near 25% (34c) bounce to €1.75.

AIB was up nearly 17%, or 24c, at €1.69 and Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) gained just under 7.5%, or 32c, to close at €4.65.