ISEQ in the black

The ISEQ index of Irish shares is in the black this morning, up 36.35 points to 7955.57.

A 40c surge in the AIB share price to €19.30 helped buoy the index, although movements were mixed on the other financial stocks. Irish Life and Permanent was down 15c to €19.90. Bank of Ireland rose 8c to €14.98 while Anglo Irish Bank fell 2c to €13.10.

AIB, Bank of Ireland and Anglo Irish Bank were among the most-traded stocks this morning. Greencore (down 2c to 4.01) and Kingspan (up 2c to €12.99) made up the top five most-traded stocks.

Meanwhile, information technology group Horizon saw its shares rise 1c to €1.07 after it announced the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Irish software solutions company Enterprise Process Consulting Group Limited (EPC).