ISEQ down after lacklustre week

John Collins

The ISEQ Index closed the day at 6,431.38, a loss of 51.28 which capped a lacklustre week for most Irish shares.

Although trading volumes were relatively light particularly amongst financial stocks which one trader described as being at “summer volumes” Irish stocks fared better than many of their UK and European peers.

Big gainers on the ISEQ included drug maker Elan and drinks group C&C, which reported annual results. Pre-tax profits at C&C were down 41 per cent to €103.9 million and executives admitted trading was soft in the year to date the market took comfort that they stuck to their full year guidance. The stock finished at €4.87 up 14c. Elan was also up over 3 per cent and closed at €17.90.

Smurfit Kappa was the biggest faller closing down 9.7 per cent on the day at €7.75 following a warning at the announcement of its first quarter results that earnings could be down as much as 10 per cent.

Record oil prices and new concerns over the health of the financial sector cast their shadow over European stock markets. The FTSE 100 was down 66.1 to close at 6204.7, Germany’s Dax was down 68.73 to 7003.2, while France’s Cac 40 index shed 95.02 points to close at 4960.6.

US stocks also fell today as insurer American International Group (AIG) reported a record $7.8 billion quarterly loss.