The Irish market continued to find itself in negative territory this evening, dropping around 0.5 per cent or 30 points to 5,958.93 at 4.30 pm.
Overall, it was a mixed day for stocks with volumes generally light.
Downgrades from a number of stockbroking houses for Grafton and Kingspan due largely to their exposure to sterling saw those stocks come under pressure.
Grafton shed 12 cents to €5.37 – a drop of more than 2 per cent – with more than 780,000 shares traded.
There was good volume traded in Kingspan with around 1.8 million shares changing hands. It dropped below the €8 mark as it lost 19 cents to €7.81 with the stock now having fallen by around €1 in the space of a week.
Record oil prices led to weakness in Ryanair. It fell back by more than 3.6 per cent to €2.65.
Elsewhere, Paddy Power which was sold off yesterday, recovered today, posting a gain of 80 cents to €21.60. C&C also put in a solid day, gaining nearly 5 per cent to close at €4.20.
Among the financials, Anglo Irish Bank was the star performer as it tacked on 16 cents to €7.89 with around 1.3 million shares traded. However, AIB was 18 cents weaker at €12.77, while Bank of Ireland eased back 20 cents to €8.80.
The Iseq was out of line with most other European exchanges, however. European stocks advanced for the first time in six days, buoyed by gains in energy stocks and retailers after Tesco released upbeat results.
National indexes increased in 14 of 18 western European markets, with the UK's FTSE jumping 1.3 per cent. Germany's DAX gained 0.5 per cent and France's CAC climbed 0.3 per cent.