All action centred around Bank of Ireland today as investors took part in the last full day of trading before the Tuesday morning deadline for the rights issue.
The stock was hugely active, with some 70 million trades taking place in Dublin across both classes of stock. On a day when the market generally was down, Bank of Ireland advanced by 5.5 per cent to close at 76 cent with the nil rights adding 3 cent to finish at 20 cent.
The bounce was due to the fact that the take-up is expected to be very high according to traders. The relative underperformance of the stock during the rights process at a time when financial stocks across the board have been taking a hit, also had a role to play according to analysts.
Elsewhere on the Iseq macro events continued to impinge on the market. The Iseq finished in negative territory in line with European stock markets, as the publication of a negative US jobs report dragged stocks down in afternoon trading.
Concerns about the debt situation in Hungary and a falling euro weighed particularly on financial stocks.
Apart from Bank of Ireland, the ISEQ followed that trend, with AIB shedding 3 per cent and Irish Life and Permanent losing 4.25 per cent.
Ryanair, the second largest constituent on the index, continued to attract significant investor interest as the company's international investor roadshow continued. However, the stock finished 2.7 per cent lower at €3.54.
Building stocks also lost ground. Grafton lost 4.5 per cent to finish at €2.98, while insulation company Kingspan shed 4 per cent to end the session at €6.82.
Norkom Group was one of the best performers, adding 5 cent to €1.55 ahead of the announcement of its full-year results next Wednesday.
