Irish shares slipped slightly yesterday as a weaker tone overseas and a lack of newsflow at home left the market without much direction. The Iseq finished just above the 8,000 level after a day of relatively light trading volume.
In the financial sector, Irish Life & Permanent continued to make progress on the back of the bid speculation triggered by Aviva's move on the Prudential. It added a further 25 cent, or 1.3 per cent, to €19.
But elsewhere, the picture was more subdued. Bank of Ireland finished the day unchanged at €15.40 as investors await the release of its pre-close statement next Tuesday, while AIB dropped one cent to €19.26.
Anglo Irish Bank also slipped, by seven cent to €13.45.
Among the smaller stocks, IFG failed to get a significant boost from an upbeat first-quarter trading statement from its rival, Kensington, edging up by just one cent to €1.88.
Industrial stocks failed to provide much more drama. CRH slipped by a further three cent to €28.50 as dealers reported more profit-taking in the wake of its recent strong run.
Independent News & Media remained soft ahead of the release of its results today, closing two cent lower at €2.67.
But Greencore continued to march ahead, adding a further four cent, or 1 per cent, to €3.75, buoyed by the continued property and takeover speculation around the company.
Other movers included Ryanair, which was up by nine cent, or 1.2 per cent, to €7.84, helped by a recent weakening in the oil price.
Eircom also edged up by one cent to €2.18 as investors awaited the next move in the Babcock & Brown offer saga.
DCC shares dropped by two cent to €19.30 as NCB Stockbrokers cut its rating on the stock from "buy" to "accumulate". While the broker has left its forecasts for the group unchanged, it sees limited upside to its share price target of €19.50 without further acquisition activity.
