On a quiet morning’s trading the ISEQ was pulled down by a fall in the major financials and reached midday down 58.45 points at 5,580.78.
Bank of Ireland led the drop shedding 36 cents to euro 9.85 a fall of nearly 3.5 per cent. AIB also reached midsession in negative territory down 23 cents to euro 13.12. Irish Life and Permanent was sucked into negative territory too and at midday was on euro 12.55, down 15 cents.
It has been a bleak new year for Eircom as its shares fell again this morning to euro 2.50 a drop of 10 cents. Technology company Iona was down this morning shedding 200 cents to euro 53.00. Independent News and Media also succumbed and dropped five cents to euro 3.20.
On a positive note, Jurys hotel group eased ahead five cents to euro 9.00 while Ryanair gained four cents to euro 11.35 while Abbey continued to gain following its results last week and reached midday up 10 cents on euro 3.60.
UK blue chips stayed modestly weaker at midday, but held well above early session lows awaiting Wall Street's restart today for fresh direction, with the sharp falls in New York on Friday still offsetting a spate of corporate activity today in London, dealers said.
At 12.14 (GMT), the FTSE 100 index was 8.0 points lower at 6,190.1, well above its early low of 6,137.7.