In Ireland, stocks climbed moderately to finish the week up just under 1%. Given the focus on the unfolding scandal involving solicitors and mortgages some were surprised that more financial stocks didn't feature among the biggest movers. But market observers opined, grimly, that a suf"cient amount of bad news was already priced into Irish banking stocks to absorbthe scandal.

Irish Life & Permanent, in fact, was the biggest large-cap mover, closing the week up 5.71% at 15.80. The biggest loser of note was Trinity Biotech, which saw shares slump to 1.60, down more than 13% on news that earnings would be revised down 99%.

As jitters continue about expected further negative newsflow from the building sectors in Ireland and elsewhere, with rumours of a below already lowered expectation autumn selling season and declining immigration at home, construction shares split. CRH closed up more than 5% at 27.419 while Readymix fell more than 8%.

Elsewhere in Europe, STMicroelectronics NV paced an advance among technology companies as the region's largest maker of semiconductors said it expects sales to increase this quarter. Assicurazioni Generali, Italy's largest insurer, also climbed.

The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index added 0.8% to 383.95. The measure has rallied 9% since reaching a five-month low on speculation that profit growth and takeovers will overcome rising debt defaults and a US housing recession. National benchmarks rose in 13 of 18 western European markets. The FTSE 100 added 2%, while DAX Index increased 0.8%.

CAC 40 Index rose 1%.

Indexes extended gains after Countrywide, the biggest US mortgage lender, said it expects to return to profit in the fourth quarter and in 2008 following its first quarterly loss in 25 years.

France Telecom, Europe's thirdbiggest phone company, gained 6.3%, sending a measure for European telecommunications stocks to a six-year high. The company now expects stable fullyear pro"t margins, from a "slight" drop forecast previously.

France Telecom also said thirdquarter sales rose 3.3 % to 13.5bn euros, boosted by the wireless business in the UK and emerging markets such as Egypt and Romania. That beat analysts' estimates.

Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile-phone company, added 11%. DeutscheTelekom, Europe's largest phone company, rose 8%.

ABB gained 7.7%. The world's largest builder of power networks said third-quarter profit climbed 86% to $738 million, as China and India invest in power grids to support their growing economies.

TomTom, the world's largest maker of car navigation equipment, rallied 18%, the best performance in the Stoxx 600. The world's biggest producer of car navigation equipment said third-quarter pro"t jumped 36% to 99m, higher than the 87m projected by analysts. The company also increased its full-year sales forecast. European technology stocks advanced 2.6%, the thirdbest performance among the 18 industry groups in the Stoxx 600.

Milestones

Aviation enthusiast Joe Ruffies paid a reported $100,000 for two first class tickets on the maiden commercial flight of the Airbus A380, the world's biggest passenger airline, from Singapore to Sydney on Friday.

Ruffies bought the tickets on Ebay, where seats were being auctioned off to the highest bidders. The sale raised $1.3m for charity.

Numbers

DUBLIN ISEQ 7,862.15 UP 0.90% .

EUROPE DJ STOXX 50 4,440.23 UP 0.66% .

OIL Brent = $86.18 UP 5.71% .LONDON FTSE 100 6,661.30 UP 2.04% .NEW YORK Dow 13,806.70 UP 2.11% NASDAQ 2,804.19 UP 2.9% .

EURO/DOLLAR 1= $1.4384 UP $0.0119 Equity movers

IRISH SHARES GAINERS Company Price + % Icon 42.00 9.37 Data lex 0.79 5 .71 Irish Life & Permanent 15.80 5.71 CRH 27.419 5.21 Greencore 5.75 4.86 Kerry 20.918 4.40

LOSERS Company Price - % Petroceltic 0.13 16.13 Siteserv 0.53 13.11 Trinity Biotech 1.6 13.04 TVC 1.00 9.09 Readymix 1.56 8.24 Trintech $3.87 8.09 DCC 18.32 7.62 Glencar 0.132 7.04 Boundary 0.708 6.84

INTERNATIONAL GAINERS Company Price + % Microsoft $35.10 16.37 Debenhams 115.25p 13.27 Vodafone 193.6p 10.63 Deutsche Telekom 14.27 7.94 Apple $183.80 7.88 Assoc Brit Foods 900p 7.08 Nokia 27.64 6.14

LOSERS Company Price - % Ceva $8.78 7.59 Merrill Lynch $63.061 4.47 UBS 61.95Sfr 4.32 Liberty Global $38.42 4.02 ING Groep 30.34 3.96 Allianz 151.26 3.26

The week ahead

MONDAY Bank holiday UK consumer credit German cost of living

TUESDAY US consumer confidence, house prices German unemployment Results: UBS

WEDNESDAY US Federal Reserve interest rate decision Bank of Japan interest rate decision Industrial employment and earnings EU harmonised consumer prices, unemployment, business and consumer confidence UK Nationwide house prices US GDP, employment cost, new construction, Chicago PMI Results: Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Boerse, Aon, Sanofi-Aventis,

THURSDAY Markets in Financial Instruments Directive comes into effect NCB manufacturing PMI UK PMI US personal income and spending, ISM, layoffs German bank holiday Results: ABN Amro, BG Group, British American Tobacco, Exxon Mobil, Smith & Nephew, Unilever, Chevron, British Airways, Fortis,

FRIDAY Exchequer returns EU PMI US non-farm payrolls, factory orders German PMI, retail sales Results: British Airways

The week that was

A DIG-OUT FOR THE TAOISEACH

ITwas probably going to be impossible anyway for Bertie Ahern to give himself a 38,000 raise without provoking howls of outrage from the opposition . . . and, let's face it . . . pretty much everyone who earns less than his generous 310,000 per annum salary, but someone with the Taoiseach's reputed political skill surely should have refrained from lecturing the nation on wage restraint the very next day.

But there was Ahern at an Ibec lunch at the Four Seasons in Dublin on Friday throwing shapes about keeping wages down to maintain economic competitiveness: "There has been deterioration in our cost competitiveness in recent years and arresting this trend will be key to growth prospects, " he said. "This must be a key consideration when we come to consider the next phase of negotiations on pay under Towards 2016."

Indeed. The Taoiseach's raise alone exceeds the average industrial wage by 8,748, while his yearly pay packet stands at about 10 times the average Irish gross salary of 31,252.

RHINEBRIDGE STRIKES AGAIN

PITY poor Seattle, the latest victim of the US subprime crisis that is continuing to cause rolling bankruptcies of Dublin-listed structured investment vehicles (SIVs). King County, where the rainy city is located, had the misfortune to invest 3.8% of its $4bn investment pool in commercial paper held by Rhinebridge, Cheyne Finance and Mainsail II . . . a kind of axis of evil among SIVs.

The first two, which are listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, went into receivership in the last two weeks when they couldn't meet their debt obligations to investors, triggering an "insolvency event" in each fund.

Rhinebridge was still wet behind the ears when this happened, having listed only in June, but couldn't even meet its first 90-day commercial paper bill at the beginning of the month.

The repercussions in the American Pacific Northwest underline the ISE's hard-won central global role in providing a home for some of the most sophisticated . . . and risky . . . financial instruments ever created. Just not in exactly the way its executives intended.

The so-called "liquidity crunch" really got underway in late July when German bank IKB, which runs Rhinebridge, had to get a 3.5bn credit lifeline to cope with losses at another of its Dublin funds, Rhineland.

SURPLUS SURCHARGE?

AER LINGUS has ignored shareholder Ryanair's call for the airline to eliminate fuel surcharges on long-haul flights and instead increased them as oil shot up to $92 a barrel late in last week.

As of 1 November the former State air carrier will charge an extra 50 each way for flights to Boston, New York and Washington, 55 for Chicago, Orlando and Dubai and 65 for Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Aer Lingus has not ruled out future increases, as commercial director Enda Corneille has said he would keep the surcharges under review in light of changes in the price of oil. Hopefully you can make up the difference in the exchange rate changing Euro to Dollars.

FACE IT. MICROSOFT WON MICROSOFT bested rivals Google and Yahoo to become the winning bidder for a stake in the new star in the social networking universe, Facebook. The Redmond, WA behemoth will invest $240m in a deal that values Facebook at . . . in the estimation of Rupert Murdoch . . . the ludicrous level of 15 billion.

The real benefit for Microsoft is to secure the exclusive rights to place banner advertisements on the pages of the 60% of the 49m Facebook users outside the United States.

Most say it was a must-win for Microsoft to prevent total Google dominance in online advertising. The bad news for Microsoft? It makes it harder to press its case that Google has a monopoly on online ads.