Dublin market finishes down 1.9%

Dublin’s Iseq index took its lead from European markets today, with most stocks losing ground and the overall index finishing in the red, as a slowdown in Chinese economic growth and disappointing figures from the US overnight weighed on markets across Europe.

Dublin slightly underperformed in comparison to its European peers, finishing down 1.9 per cent, dragged down by a poor performance by financials and index heavyweights CRH and Ryanair.

AIB and Bank of Ireland were both weak, as the IMF report on Ireland informed sentiment. AIB saw the sharpest falls, closing down 5.5 per cent at €0.85. As the European Commission approved Bank of Ireland’s restructuring plan, the bank shed 4 per cent to end the day at just under €0.71. Irish Life and Permanent bucked the trend, and was one of the few stocks on the index to end the session in positive territory adding 2.5 per cent to finish at €1.57.

House building group Abbey rose closed almost 1 per cent higher after the company beat analysts’ expectations by reporting a pre-tax profit of €15.2 million for the year to the end of April, compared to a loss of more than €54 million the previous year.

Readymix gained 5 per cent to close at 21 cents after the building materials group said it expects to report a pre-tax loss of about €6.6 million for the first half of the year, compared to a €6.9 million loss in the corresponding period last year. Other building related stocks underperformed with CRH, Kingspan and Grafton all losing ground on the day.

Greencore saw significant activity after the company announced its intention to sell its Dutch convenience food division. Despite showing that the company is delivering on its strategy to focus on its UK and US businesses, the stock shed a half a per cent to close at €1.32.

Ryanair lost 2.5 per cent, with traders predicting that investors should begin taking positions on Friday and Monday ahead of statistics next Tuesday.

DCC, which publishes an interim management statement tomorrow in conjunction with its AGM, fell back towards the end of the session to end fractionally lower at €18.37.