The Irish market just about managed to stay in positive territory today, thanks to a buoyant food and beverage sector which counteracted a weak performance by CRH.
Irish agri-food stocks were helped by full year results released this morning by Danone which were pretty much in line with expectations.
Glanbia put in a decent performance, rising more than 4 per cent, or 16 cent, to close just below €4.20.
Greencore, which this afternoon said it is still considering its options in relation to a possible counter-bid for Northern Foods, was also reasonably strong, gaining three cent to €1.22.
Cider manufacturer C&C found itself among the biggest gainers today. Though the stock has been relatively volatile in recent sessions, it has remained range-bound between about €3.38 and €3.50. However today it managed to break through the upper range to touch €3.53, though it slipped back to €3.47 by the close. This represented a daily gain of over 2 per cent or seven cent.
Kerry Group jumped 20 cent to €26.10 at one point in today's session, but slumped in the last hour of trading to finish down 30 cent at €25.60.
CRH, the largest constituent of the Iseq index, covered a lot of ground today, moving from a high of €16.53 to a low of just under €16.20. By the close, its share price was resting at €16.40, a drop of 13 cent on the day. A trader said there was “nothing untoward” in this dip, as international peers such as Lafarge were also "a little easier" on the day.
Overall the Iseq index added 1.7 points to finish at 2,979.22. Across Europe, the FTSE 100 index fell 0.4 per cent, while Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 rose 0.1 and 0.3 per cent respectively
Additional reporting - Reuters