Iseq: 3,037.79 (-16.60): The main story today was drinks group C&C, which reported its interim results. Although these were disappointing, its share price closed up by 8 cent or 5.9 per cent to €1.43, with brokers believing that the bad news had already being priced in. The market was also seen to have responded positively to the resignation of its CEO, Maurice Pratt. Brokers also attributed some of the stock's gains to covering by short-sellers.
There were mixed fortunes for Irish banks today, with rumours of mergers and rights issues leading to divergent fortunes amongst the stocks. Irish Life & Permanent soared by 35 cent, or 11.7 per cent, to €3.35, while Anglo Irish Bank also finished the day up, increasing by 20 cent or 9.9 per cent to €2.25.
Allied Irish Bank closed the day down by just 8 cent, or 1.7 per cent, at €4.57, while Bank of Ireland reversed its fortunes of previous days to put in the worst day amongst the bank stocks today, as it fell by 29 cent, or 9.7 per cent, to €2.71.
Having announced that Newcourt is a likely target of a management buy-out, trading was heavy in the stock, as it increased by 2 cent or 10 per cent to €0.22.
Smurfit Kappa also performed well today, closing up 25 cent or 10.6 per cent at €2.60, while Kingspan gained 32 cent, or 5.9 per cent, to close up at €5.77. CRH also advanced today, adding 18 cent or 1.2 per cent to finish the day at €15.22.
Heading into negative territory were Fyffes, which lost 3 cent, or 10.7 per cent, to close at €0.25, and construction group Grafton, which declined by 20 cent, or 7.7 per cent, to finish the day down at €2.40.
In the US, the ban on short-selling of bank stocks came to an end, with investors able to short Irish bank stocks once more, through the lifting of the ban on AIB and Bank of Ireland ADRs. Overall, the market slid for a seventh day, the longest downward trend since 1996, as the global co-ordinated rate cut failed to have the desired impact on the inter-bank markets, and financial stocks continued to slide. By 11.17, the S&P 500 had fallen by 12.18 points, or 1.2 per cent, to 972.76, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved dangerously close to a level of 9,000, when it lost 93.66 points, or 1 per cent, in morning trading.
In Europe, bank stocks drove markets higher in the morning, with troubled Dexia surging by 25.8 per cent to €25.77 after it received state guarantees and HBOS helping to revive the FTSE 100 in London. However, by the afternoon most European markets had fallen back, and the FTSE 100 closed down by 52.89 points, or 1.2 per cent, to 4,313.80, while in Germany the DAX was also down 2.5 per cent and in France, the CAC 40 finished the day down 1.6 per cent.
