Market makes modest advance

THE ISEQ index made a modest gain of 10.81 pointsyesterday, to close at 2,720.59, in line with other European and world bourses.

Investors took solace from a drop in the US jobless rate to a two-and-a-half year low, and moves from Europe to enforce fiscal discipline in eurozone states.

In the financial sector, Bank of Ireland released the results of its recently announced securitisation tender offer. Having previously guided that it would accept purchases of €€1bn, it has nudged this up to €€1.1bn. The offer has generated a core tier 1 gain of €€350m and brings it on line for the €€4.2bn target to raise as set out by PCAR 2011. Shares in the bank added 0.7c to 8.9c. AIB dipped 0.3c to 6.5c, while Irish Life & Permanent was unchanged at 3.1c.