The ISEQ index dropped about 0.7 per cent today on a day when European markets in general weakened as investors grew cautious ahead of corporate earnings from the US.
After a very strong performance over the last week or so, Irish banks gave up a bit of ground. One trader said that there was nothing specific driving the banks’ prices down, and attributed the decline to profit-taking following their recent run of good form.
Bank of Ireland tumbled almost 7 per cent, or 12 cent, to €1.64, while AIB was down more than 4 per cent, about 6 cent, at just under €1.44. Irish Life & Permanent slipped 2 cent to €3.38.
Meanwhile, cider manufacturer C&C did well, given the weak market, and closed up about 2 per cent, or 7 cent, at €3.45 on a reasonable volume of about 1 million shares.
Smurfit Kappa was helped out by a report from Davy stockbroker in which it predicted that the packaging group will continue to benefit from “positive pricing momentum” in its sector, and reiterated its ’outperform’ rating for the stock. Although Smurfit reached a high of €6.86 at one point, it slipped back to €6.80 by the close, which represented a daily gain of just 2.5 cent.
Despite a positive announcement about an oil discovery in Uganda, exploration company Tullow Oil slipped slightly to £13.20 on the London Stock Exchange.
Elsewhere, some positive news from a UK housebuilder failed to have a “good read-through” for its Irish peers, one broker said. Grafton Group, for example, fell close to 1 per cent, or about 3 cent, to €3.32.
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 closed at 5,761.66 point, down 15.99 or 0.28 per cent, while Frankfurt’s DAX index ended at 6,230.83 points, down 19.86 or 0.32 percent. In Paris, the CAC-40 index closed at 4,031.99 points, down 18.51 or 0.46 per cent.