Iseq closes virtually unchanged

The Iseq closed virtually unchanged after stocks “crawled slowly” into positive territory today, dealers said.

The index was up 19.84 points or 0.36 per cent at 5,505.61 as business drew to a close in Dublin.

Building materialis group, CRH recovered a lot of the ground it lost yesterday, while the banks were weak, according to traders.

In Europe, the Dow Jones Stoxx 600, an index of the leading stocks in 18 western European markets, was down 0.4 per cent at 300.44 when business closed in most of the continent's main markets.

UBS and Deutsche Bank led the way down as Goldman Sachs forecast even more writedowns for Europe's big financial institutions. The index is down 18 per cent so far this year.

In London, the FTSE 100 was down 48.5 points or 0.8 per cent at 5,708.4. Banks suffered the most as Britain's biggest home lender, HBOS, warned that writedowns would hit first-half performance.