Dublin report: The Irish market closed the day marginally up after a quiet day's trading. Business was light due to the lack of electronic trading yesterday. The ISE Xetra trading system was unavailable as it is operated from Frankfurt, where the market was closed for the May Day holiday.
Trading was light with a lot of people staying away from the markets and little company-specific news to drive trade. The Iseq closed 18.52 points stronger at 9,489. Many stocks ended the day on a positive note, with construction companies putting in a good day. CRHpicked up 15 cent to €32.40, shrugging off poor sentiment on construction stocks in the US - where the sector was off 7 per cent, as peer company Vulcan came under pressure despite posting good first-quarter earnings.
Kingspanwas 25 cent stronger at €20.85 and McInerneywas up 10 cent to €14. Graftoncontinued its recent upward movement, tacking on 10 cent to close the day at €11.
Financials also enjoyed a largely positive day, with Bank of Irelandadding 10 cent to €15.85 and AIBedging up four cent to €22.33. Irish Life and Permanentwas unchanged at €19.50. Anglo Irish Bank, the one Irish financial institution that is not tied into the negative news over property and housing, slipped back five cent to €16.50 ahead of interims next week.
Other gainers on the day included Iona, which added 10 cent to €4, and Kerry, which was 16 cent stronger at €22.10. Fyffes picked up a couple of cent to €1.03.
Elsewhere, property group Blackrock Internationalwas one of the biggest fallers, dropping back more than 2 per cent to 46 cent. AGI Therapeuticsdropped four cent to €1.89, while Datalexwas two cent weaker at €0.94.
