Lull in trading initiated by midterm break

DUBLIN REPORT: Iseq: 2,952.57 (+54.93) Settlement date: February 22ndTHE ISEQ succumbed to a Lenten lethargy yesterday, as the lull in trading initiated by the midterm break and Monday's national holiday in the US continued for a third day.

The volumes of shares traded were once again light, although buyers were not completely absent from the market and gains for some of the Iseq’s major players helped it to a 1.7 per cent climb on a day of upward movements for stocks across Europe.

Although European banks such as BNP Paribas and Deutsche Boerse published results that beat analysts’ expectations, the feelgood sentiment towards the banking sector failed to translate into a gain for AIB. The stock closed down almost 2.7 per cent at €1.09.

Bank of Ireland closed up 1 cent at €1.31 on a day in which a scheduled interim management statement was replaced with an announcement on a change to its financial year. The bank will now end its fiscal year on December 31st rather than March 31st, a move that brings it in line with AIB, and may provide the lender with freedom to raise capital in the first half of the year, according to analysts at NCB Stockbrokers.

Irish Life Permanent shares rose 3.7 per cent to €2.86. Similar percentage gains were also enjoyed by both building materials group CRH, which had a volatile day, and fruit distributor Total Produce. United Drug and CC were not far behind and the latter attracted enough buyer interest to help it along to a closing price of €2.82, up 3.3 per cent.

Ryanair’s stock advanced on the day, rising 1 per cent to €3.38, while food group Kerry - named yesterday as the most valuable Irish brand in a new survey - also rose 1 per cent to €21.76.

Elsewhere, paper and packaging group Smurfit Kappa rose 1 per cent to €6.26, while Greencore climbed 1.3 per cent to €1.33.