Market Report: After a strong start, the Irish stock market lost ground yesterday, hit again by weakness in overseas markets.
Settlement Day: May 17th
A familiar combination of interest rate jitters, high oil prices and worries about the continuing situation in the Middle East combined to drag down Wall Street with knock-on effects on European stock markets.
In Dublin, the ISEQ lost nearly 1.3 per cent of its value as Elan and the leading banking stocks headed southwards.
Elan, which is due to release results today, shed €1.05 or nearly 6 per cent in Dublin to €16.60.
In New York, it was off more than 3.5 per cent to $19.75.
AIB also had a less than good day, losing 28 cents or 2.3 per cent to €11.92.
Bank of Ireland was also off seven cents to €10.00 ahead of its results announcement today.
However, Eircom and Kingspan both managed to buck the general weakness in the market, gaining ground following the announcement that they are to be included in the MSCI Standard Index, which is tracked by fund managers.
Kingspan was up nine cents, or 2 per cent, to €4.52 while Eircom added two cents, or 1.4 per cent, to €1.45. Independent News & Media also found favour, gaining two cents or 1 per cent to €1.84 on the back of good UK readership figures.
McInerney was unchanged at €4.80 despite the release of a positive trading statement at its annual meeting.
Galen, too, was unchanged in Dublin at €11.20 following the release of second-quarter results, while in London, it gave up 1 per cent to 763 pence sterling per share.
Tullow was unchanged at €1.48 in Dublin but added 2 per cent to 99.75 pence sterling in London as Merrill Lynch set a price target of 125 pence for the company.
Meanwhile, the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) announced plans to auction €750 million of bonds due 2020 on May 19th.
