After the extended St Patrick's Day celebrations, it was a relatively quiet day on the Irish stock exchange yesterday. Nevertheless, the Iseq index of Irish shares rose by more than 1 per cent, reversing some of last week's losses.

The biggest climber of the day was drinks group C&C, which added to the 8.7 per cent gain it made on Friday, by putting on a further 6.57 per cent yesterday, amid speculation of stake-building in the company.

Its share price closed at €11.35, up 70 cent on the day, with 2.3 million shares traded.

Iseq newcomers Smurfit Kappa moved up again, rising 3.59 per cent to €18.75, closing 65 cent higher than it did on Friday. The packaging group is now trading at €2.25 higher than its listing price of €16.50. It will cease conditional trading and formally join the Iseq this week.

Elsewhere, it was a good day for the financial stocks, with AIB happy to recover some of the losses it notched up last week.

The stock made a 2.57 per cent gain to close at €22.37 yesterday with 1.9 million shares traded. Trading of some 2.4 million shares in Anglo Irish Bank helped the stock climb 8 cent to €16.30. Bank of Ireland was flat, adding just a cent to close at €17.26, while Irish Life & Permanent rose 2.41 per cent to finish at €20.40, up 48 cent.

Building materials group CRH also made inroads into last week's losses, rising 1.1 per cent to €30.31, up 33 cent. Meanwhile, Ryanair climbed almost 2 per cent to land on €5.63, while Aer Lingus added 6 cent to close at €2.99, a rise of just over 2 per cent. The biggest faller of the day was Elan, which slipped 3.65 per cent to close at €9.50.

As far as IEX-listed companies were concerned, Total Produce fell 2.33 per cent to 84 cent, while Tullow Oil added 13 cent to €5.30.

Settlement Date: March 22nd