Bank shares mixed as airlines gain ground

The Irish index of shares was flat this morning as bank stocks were mixed and shares in airlines rose higher.

No-frills airline Ryanair saw its shares gain after it announced a quarterly loss of €11 million for the third quarter, compared to €102 million a year earlier. It also revised its profit guidance for the year, increasing it to £275 million, while it said yields would decline by close to 15 per cent instead of previous estimates of 20 per cent.

Shares in the airline rose 5.7 per cent to €3.54 by about 1.30pm today. Rival Aer Lingus, which said it would no longer try to undercut Ryanair's fares, saw its shares climb 6 per cent to 70 cent.

Shares in the two major banks, AIB and Bank of Ireland, slipped this morning following reports this weekend that the National Asset Management Agency would delay a February 12th target to buy the first series of loans from the country's lenders.

Bank of ireland's shares slipped 3.4 per cent to €1.28, while AIB dipped as much as 3.7 per cent before gaining back some ground, trading at 1.8 per cent down at €1.26.

Irish Life and Permanent is not involved in Nama. Its shares rose 2.2 per cent to €3.17.

While Kingspan shares rose 4.2 per cent to €6.17, other construction stocks did not perform as well. Grafton slipped 1.8 per cent to €2.65, while McInerney was down 5.5 per cent to 17 cent.

The Iseq was up 7.55 points to 2,983.80 by 2.07pm.