European markets drift down on quiet day

The Iseq Index of Irish shares was down 0.47 per cent ahead of the close after what dealers described as a quiet day.

A bank holiday in the US meant that many markets were subdued, but Dublin, London and leading European indices drifted into negative territory.

AIB was down over 2 per cent at €8.65 in the run up to the close of business. Building materials group, Kingspan, was up 3 per cent at €8.05, while packaging group, Smurfit Kappa, was up 6 per cent at €4.67, after investors bought more than two million shares.

In Europe, declining commodity-related stocks dragged down most markets.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index, made up of leading stocks in 18 western European markets, closed down 0.4 per cent at 1,189.64 points after falling as low as 1,180.48.

In London, the FTSE-100 index of leading stocks was down 33.8 points, just over half a per cent, at 5602.8.