Market finishes week strongly

THE market finished the week with a flourish yesterday as bank stocks had another strong day.

The ISEQ index powered ahead by 33.57 to close the week at 3,057.30.

The financials continued their impressive recentperformances. AIB added 5c to finish at €1.45. Bank of Ireland and Irish Life and Permanent added 5.8c and 9c to €1.23 and €3.28.

Construction was another strong sector, with market heavyweight CRH gaining 14c to €18.09. Grafton Group and Kingspan had good days, with the former rising 12.3c to €3.25 while the latter advanced 4.9c to €5.92.

In other news, FBD holdings rose by over 5% or 32.6c to €6.60.