Financials lead way as Iseq down on light volumes

DUBLIN REPORT: Iseq:2694.77 (-18.31) Settlement date:October 29th

THE BANK holiday quiet lingered into a mid-term calm yesterday as the Iseq index of Irish shares trundled along on light volumes and little news flow.

As European stocks went into retreat, the Dublin market joined in the modest declines, led down principally by building materials group CRH, pharmaceutical company Elan and the banks.

In percentage terms, the financial stocks were the heaviest fallers, with AIB closing down 3.9 per cent at 37 cent. Irish Life & Permanent fell 3.1 per cent to €1.53, while Bank of Ireland fell more than 2 per cent to 58 cent.

The low trading volumes suggested there was nothing specific driving down their share prices, other than the usual malaise in the Irish banking sector.

The market closed before the Government’s official statement that it will seek a fiscal adjustment of €15 billion over the next four years in order to achieve the target deficit of 3 per cent of GDP by 2014. However, it is unlikely that the statement would have any effect on international investor sentiment other than to confirm expectations about the state of the Irish economy.

CRH closed down eight cent at €12.50, on a day when a number of construction stocks responded poorly to new trading figures from the Mexico-based Cemex, a giant in the US building materials sector.

Elsewhere, Elan declined 1.9 per cent to €4.05 after Biogen, its joint partner on the drug Tysabri, issued an update showing an uptake on the numbers of people on Tysabri, but with lower revenue from the drug than analysts had expected.

Paddy Power closed up 22 cent at €29.22. Drinks group CC was also one of the days few climbers, rising almost 1 per cent to €3.18 after the release of data showing a growth in on-trade volumes of its cider Magners in August.