Little to cheer as market woes continue

Market Report:There was a Thanksgiving lull in activity yesterday, but while the American holiday cheer helped the FTSE make gains, there were still a few turkeys to be found on the Iseq index, which fell 0.85 per cent yesterday.

Irish-listed stocks, beleaguered by a week of heavy selling, tried to gain some traction, but while some share price rises sounded impressive in percentage terms, dealers noted that they were coming from a very low base and might not be able to sustain the gains.

Builder McInerney, for example, rose 7.55 per cent yesterday to close up 8 cent at €1.14. But it ended last week's trading at a price of €1.25, and was trading as high as €3.25 last February.

The sell-off was mostly concentrated in the banks yesterday, and among the financial stocks, it was Bank of Ireland's turn to lead the way down, falling 3 per cent to €8.90 - down from a high of almost €18 last February.

Anglo Irish Bank, AIB and Irish Life & Permanent also sank yesterday, with Anglo suffering least, down just 2 cent at €8.92. There was some short covering in the stock ahead of the presentation of its full-year results next Wednesday.

There was buyer interest in building materials group Kingspan in the final hours of yesterday's trading session, but the stock still came off more than 3 per cent, finishing down 44 cent at €12.85.

Grafton continued its buyback programme, purchasing a block of shares at €5.95. The stock ended down 1.8 per cent at €5.93.

Glanbia, Newcourt and Ryanair were among the day's other climbers, while IFG, United Drug and DCC all fell.