Leading stocks drag market in negative direction

Market report: The Irish market continued its downward spiral yesterday, dragged in a negative direction by many of its main members.

The financials contributed heavily to the declines, with Anglo Irish the only stock to buck the negative trend. Volumes were weak generally, except for the banks, which saw a little more interest - albeit mainly from sellers.

AIB came under heavy pressure, particularly in London, where more than 6 million shares changed hands. The stock dropped 20 cent, or 1.1 per cent, to end the day at €18.55.

Meanwhile, Bank of Ireland was down 12 cent, or 0.8 per cent, at €14.68, while Irish Life & Permanent fell 15 cent, or 0.8 per cent, to close at €19.75.

Anglo recovered towards the end of the day to close up 10 cent, or 0.8 per cent, at €13.01, after dropping as low as €12.70 earlier in the day.

One of the few newsmakers was financial services group IFG, whose shares dropped 4.2 per cent despite reporting positive results for the full year.

The company yesterday reported pretax profits of €2.9 million for 2005, following losses of €3.2 million the year before. Dealers attributed the share price decline to profit taking after a series of gains in the run-up to the results. The stock closed down 9 cent, at €2.03.

Independent News & Media was also in focus after chief executive Anthony O'Reilly exercised options in the media group. He now holds more than 199 million shares, equal to 26.4 per cent of the total issued share capital. One dealer said he wouldn't be surprised to see an increase in the coming months amid increased speculation about the company's future.

The stock slipped 2 cent, or 0.8 per cent, to €2.55.

Elsewhere, Ryanair came under pressure on the back of the higher oil prices. The stock lost 13 cent, or 1.8 per cent, to end the day at €7.25.

Conversely, Tullow benefited from the higher oil price, with its shares adding 12 cent, or 2.3 per cent, to close at €5.43.