FOR a while it looked like Christmas had come early for Ulster Bank customers.

Announcing revised savings and loan rates, it appeared to be playing Santa Claus by sparing most of its mortgage customers the quarterpoint rate rise announced by the European Central Bank on 8 June.

But if the decision to hold the standard variable rate at 3.99% looked surprising, it was also too good to be true. On Friday, Ulster published a revised notice informing customers that the standard variable rate had jumped a full quarter point to 4.24%. The party was over as quickly as it had begun.

The move places Ulster towards the bottom of the mortgage table as one of the most expensive lenders, although customers can get a much better deal by switching to its tracker mortgage.

Bank of Scotland, AIB and EBS have the lowest standard variable rates at 4%. They are followed by IIB Homeloans at 4.2% and Irish Nationwide at 4.23%.

Bank of Ireland, ICS Building Society and Ulster Bank charge 4.24%, while First Active remains the dearest lender with a standard variable rate of 4.28%.

Permanent TSB, which has held back on some recent interest hikes, had still to reveal its new mortgage rates as we went to press.

SAVE

THE GAME of cat and mouse between Northern Rock and RaboDirect continues, with the two internet banks battling for dominance in the growing market for online savings.

Northern Rock was first from the traps with the announcement that it will pay 3.6% interest on balances over 1,000 from next Thursday. RaboDirect followed with its revised rate of 3.5%, payable on deposits of 1 or more from tomorrow.

Anglo Irish Bank is also offering a sweeter deal for savers, paying 3.4% interest for 30-day notice deposits.

It has also improved its offer for regular savers, paying 5% to people who put away 100 to 1,000 a month, plus a promise that the rate will never slip below 4.5% during the twoyear savings term.

But Anglo was trumped last week by AIB, which has increased the interest it pays to regular savers to 5.25%. The catch is that savers cannot put away more than 300 a month, and the rate is guaranteed only until the end of next year.

ONE TO WATCH ALL EYES were on the property market last week with the news that house prices have jumped by 270% over the past decade, according to the latest Permanent TSB house price index.

But less attention was focused on the fact that the stock market performed almost as well over the same period, with the local Iseq index growing by 230% between 1996 and 2005.

The difference is that, while property prices climbed consistently, averaging almost 15% a year, the stock market has been a rollercoaster ride.

People who invested back in 1996 made some easy money until the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, sending world stock markets into a tailspin until early in 2003. Recovery since then has been swift and the Iseq had hit record highs before the recent market downturn.

Meanwhile, investors seeking to spread their wings by investing in Britain can buy into a new Footsie fund sold by Quinn Life. The timing is interesting because of recent warnings that the Footsie is top-heavy, with more of investors' money riding on fewer companies.

According to Jason Hollands of fund manager F&C: "The 10 biggest stocks on the FTSE 100 now account for a staggering 49% of the market and over 75% of the index is accounted for by the 29 largest stocks.

"This not only reduces the stock diversification benefits of an index fund but, because these are truly global companies, it really is too simplistic to regard the FTSE constituents as 'British' blue chip companies."