Market report: Strong techs offset weak Elan

Negative sentiment continued to weaken Elan shares today and this pushed the ISEQ off 12 points to 5629.

With results due on Monday, investors are concerned that Elan is having difficulty rolling out new products in the pipeline. As a result, Elan shares closed down 226 cents to euro 54.24.

The leading financials saw AIB eased up eight cents to euro 12.00 while Bank of Ireland shed 14 cents to euro 10.16. Irish Life and Permanent, which completed the formal acquisition of TSB Bank for euro 430 million, closed up 17 cents on euro 12.42.

Property stocks saw CRH leap ahead 55 cents to euro 18.15 and Dunloe Ewart added one cent to euro 0.40 after announcing it is considering selling properties worth euro 156 million.

Tech stocks were noticeably stronger. Iona soared ahead nearly ten per cent to euro 51.50 compared with a 2001 closing low of euro 28.00. Riverdeep also gained following strong trading of the stock on the Nasdaq last night. By close it was up 38 cents to euro 4.18.

Another strong gainer was Smurfit which gained 2.5 per cent to euro 2.00.