Anglo worst performer as financials shed value

DUBLIN REPORT: Iseq: 2,673.82 (-1.04) Settlement Date: November 19thIT WAS another difficult day for financial stocks yesterday, although the market as a whole remained largely flat, closing slightly down 1.04 points, at 2,679.99.

Anglo Irish Bankwas the worst performer of the day on the exchange and it gave up 44 cent, or 25.4 per cent, to fall back to €1.29.

Brokers were unable to give a specific reason for the decline, but cited falling confidence in Anglo in conjunction with drift among investors - moving out of the stock before the bank's results in early December.

Following Irish Life & Permanent'sremoval from the Dow Jones dividend index, it saw a day of heavy selling.

However, with buyers on the other side, ILP's value held up well considering, and closed down by 15 cent, or 8.8 per cent, winding up at € 1.55.

Bank of Irelandalso struggled, and despite holding up well for most of the day, it fell back sharply in late afternoon to close down 13 cent, or 10.4 per cent, at € 1.09, moving perilously close to the € 1 level.

AIBagain held up the most out of the four main financial stocks, losing just 3 cent, or 1.0 per cent, to finish the day at € 2.95.

Elsewhere, construction firm CRHcontinues to "defy gravity" as one broker sees it, and it managed to advance by 80 cent, or 4.7 per cent, to climb to € 18.00.

However, Kingspancontinues to suffer from the worsening economic climate as it fell back by 25 cent, or 6.3 per cent, to finish the day down at € 3.70, while Graftonhad a similar fate, giving up 9 cent or 3.4 per cent to close at € 2.56.

DCChad a resilient day, as it gained 77 cent, or 6.6 per cent to climb to € 12.42.

Pharmaceutical firm Elanalso advanced, climbing by 23 cent, or 4.6 per cent to € 5.21.