Fears of more oil price increases drive Iseq lower

Iseq: 2,920.18 (–10.25) Settlement date: March 9th:THE ISEQ index retreated slightly yesterday as the spectre of rising oil prices overshadowed encouraging employment figures from the US.

The Irish market opened well yesterday morning as it played “catch-up” with US markets which were strong overnight, brokers said.

However, the Iseq drifted off in the afternoon in line with European markets, as fears over further increases in oil prices resurfaced.

In the financial sector, Bank of Ireland once again accounted for most of the volume. The stock was fairly steady for much of the day, trading at about the 33 cent level. However, it finished a fraction off at 32 cent.

The other two banks were reasonably quiet, with AIB down slightly at 24 cent, and Irish Life Permanent off 1.5 cent at 88 cent.

Elsewhere, there was little cheer for the building materials sector. Index bellwether CRH traded on very thin volume but fluctuated considerably on the day. It almost tipped €16.30 at one point, but then slipped back below the €16 mark. By the close, the stock was more than 1 per cent off, or 16.5 cent, at just under €15.91.

Traders also reported weakness in Grafton. Although the group, which owns the Woodie’s and Atlantic Homecare chains, posted strong profit growth when it released its results on Thursday, its share price has fallen more than 8 per cent over the last two sessions. Yesterday it fell 12 cent to €3.50, albeit on fairly thin volume.

Kingspan was also off on the day, slipping 2.5 per cent, or 17 cent, to €6.63.

In the aviation sector, Aer Lingus traded at about 88 cent for much of the session. Although it weakened into the close, it was still slightly ahead at 86.5 cent.

Ryanair was pretty much flat at €3.39.