Financials lifted by US plan buy up toxic assets

Iseq: 2,131 9 (+14) at 12.40pm:The Dublin market drifted lower this afternoon despite the bounce in financials provided by Washington's plan to help clear its banks of up to $1 trillion in toxic assets.

At 12.40pm the Iseq index of Irish shares was down by over 14 points, or 0.67 per cent at 2,131.

Despite an uptick by financial stocks the main reason for the index tracking lower was a 1.5 per cent fall by market heavyweight CRH which eased down 24 cent to €15.90.

Financial stocks were boosted by the US plan although brokers said the relatively modest daily gains reflected strong closing prices on Friday.

AIB shares gained 1.6 per cent to 68 cent while Bank of Ireland added 1 cent or 2.4 per cent to 51 cent 5 million shares traded.

Irish Life and Permanent shares were over 2 per cent lower at €1.27 with Dublin brokers saying this was mainly a result of profit taking following a strong end to last week.

Shares in house-builder McInerney were 5 per cent up this afternoon at 10 cent after it announced pre-tax losses of €206.5 million last year.

McInerney reported a €47 million trading loss and also took €82.5 million charge linked to lower land values of its land and a further €40 million of writedowns in the value of acquisitions in the UK.