Market Report: The Irish stock market gave up ground yesterday after a strong recent run, taking its cue from the weaker tone on overseas markets.
All of the leading financial stocks lost ground against a backdrop of rising euro-zone interest rates and increased competition in the Irish market, as HBOS announced plans to expand its retail bank offering in Ireland.
AIB closed 35 cent or 1.9 per cent lower at €17.95, Bank of Ireland was down 18 cent or 1.3 per cent at €13.65, while Anglo Irish Bank shed 25 cent, or 1.9 per cent, to €13.00. Irish Life & Permanent was down 28 cent or 1.6 per cent to €17.04.
Other leading stocks also drifted lower. Ryanair closed 13 cent, or 1.6 per cent, weaker at €7.96 amid conflicting broker reports on the company. While ABN Amro cut the stock to "sell" from "hold", BNP took the opposite view.
In the food sector, Greencore gave up some of Monday's gains, closing 13 cent or 3.5 per cent lower at €3.60.
Fyffes was another loser on the day, shedding eight cent or 3.5 per cent to €2.22.
Despite reports of increased cider consumption in the UK last year, and being tipped as a "buy" by Deutsche Bank, C&C lost 11 cent, or nearly 2 per cent, to €5.53.
Another stock to give up recent gains was Kingspan, which shed 24 cent, or more than 2 per cent, to €10.85. Grafton, which is due to release a trading update tomorrow or Friday, closed three cent lower at €9.09.
Independent News & Media lost three cent to €2.51 as it emerged that the buyer of a 3 per cent stake in the company last week was Denis O'Brien.
Eircom drifted off by three cent to €2.02, while Elan gave up 16 cent to €11.86 in Dublin.
Clinical trials group Icon was little changed after reporting second quarter results showing record net new business wins. In the US, the main market for the shares, they were off by just 0.1 per cent at $43.66 (€36.10) by the Irish close.
