Market continues to gain ground

The Iseq Index continued to gain ground for a second consecutive day as investors across Europe awaited results of stress tests on Spanish banks designed to determinethe extent of bad loans across the banking sector.

The Irish Exchange closed just 5.9 points higher at 3278.3.

The financial sector had mixed results with both AIB and Permanent TSB slipping back into the red. The former dipped 0.7c to 5.3c while the latter was 0.1c behind at 2.9c. Bank of Ireland bucked the trend gaining 0.1c to 9.7c.