Market rises for second day

THE Irish shares market rose for a second consecutive day yesterday as the National Treasury Management Agency auctioned €600 million worth of short-dated Government paper at a lower cost than earlier in August, thus confounding the recent Standard and Poor’s downgrade.

The ISEQ index finished the day up at 2,660.56.

Financials were mixed as both Bank of Ireland and Irish Life and Permanent made slight headway. The former moved on 1c to 76.5c, while the latter tacked on 1.5c to 1.50. AIB shed 0.3c to 77.2c.