MARKET REPORT - Iseq: 5,571.30 (-54.85):THE ISEQ took a negative turn in the afternoon after posting a lacklustre morning performance that saw it slip in and out of positive territory.

Taking its lead from other European markets, the Iseq was down just shy of 1 per cent or 55 points at 5,571 by close of business.

On a day with no real news flow, volumes were light across the board. One of the biggest losers was airline Ryanair, which traded down 4.6 per cent by the end of the day. The stock shed 15 cents to €3.10 on the back of higher oil prices and a downgrade by Goldman Sachs earlier in the morning.

Aer Lingus, which was also downgraded from buy to sell by Goldman Sachs, however, managed to buck this trend and was 4.3 per cent stronger at €1.57.

It was a mixed bag for financial stocks with Bank of Ireland turning in the worst performance as it shed 22 cents to €6.81 with about 1.5 million shares traded.

Irish Life Permanent had a better day as it tacked on 11 cents to €9.63 on light enough volumes. Anglo Irish Bank was also nearly 1.6 per cent stronger as it rose by 11 cents to €7.07, while AIB picked up 2 cents to €11.23.

Other stocks under pressure were Kerry which was down 2.5 per cent at €19.60 on very thin volumes, while construction heavyweight CRH, which had traded up at more than €20 at one stage, eventually closed 39 cents off at €19.66 as a number of sellers came into the stock late in the day. Smurfit was 3.5 per cent weaker at €3.51 with few shares traded.

Kingspan provided one of the few positives on the day as it added on 16 cents to close at €6.51.

Still buoyed by last Friday's news that it had won $55.2 million in damages following a case it brought against its rival, Abraxis bio-science pharmaceutical firm Elan closed the day 38 cents stronger at €17.20.

Settlement date: June 19th