Dublin report:The Irish market finished in positive territory yesterday, up 26 points, with gains made earlier in the day dragged back by a sell-off of equities in the US during the early hours of trading across the Atlantic.

On the Iseq index, there was good two-way trading in the financial stocks, with volume of three million in AIB and 2.9 million in Bank of Ireland. AIB closed 14 cent up at €21.64, while Bank of Ireland added 5 cent to finish at €16.20.

Irish Life & Permanent was quieter than it had been on Tuesday, but managed to hold onto the gains it made, adding 5 cent to close at €21.00, on volume of 650,000. CRH also had a good day, rising 20 cent to close at €33.49, up 0.6 per cent, following positive sector news.

There was little action in Irish Continental Group (ICG) compared to recent days, but the stock added 5 cent and closed at €20.80, another record high for the company, which is the subject of takeover interest at the moment. There was volume of three million in Independent News & Media, with a block of half-a-million selling at €3.71.

Elsewhere, United Drug was up 3.3 per cent to €4.05 following its acquisition of a Belgian pharma packaging group and IAWS was the beneficiary of positive results from Swiss baker Hiestand, in which it holds a 32 per cent stake. The food group closed up 8 cent at €18.00. The IEX-listed AGI Therapeutics announced it was ready to start phase three trials on its irritable bowel syndrome drug, but it also reported slightly worse than expected full-year operating losses. The stock finished down 5 cent at €1.80, a drop of 2.7 per cent.

Also among the fallers were Elan, which dropped nearly 4 per cent to €10.47, and Smurfit Kappa, which finished down 52 cent at €18.78.