The intrepid, albeit brief, advance of the Dow Jones above the 10,000 point mark during European trading hours failed to excite a Dublin stock exchange winding down in advance of the St Patrick's Day holiday. The ISEQ ended 0.8 per cent down as the banks and financial stocks continued to suffer from profit-taking even though there was nothing untoward on the foreign markets to cause the flight.
AIB was back 20 cents to #14.80 (£11.66) in large volumes and Bank of Ireland shed 50 cents to close at #17.70 (£13.94). One dealer said a lot of attention had turned to moves in Europe to integration, where BNP continues to circle Societe Generale and Paribas in a merger proposition.
Irish Life was down - losing 15 cents and closing at #8.55 (£6.73) - as was its merger partner, Irish Permanent, which eased back 20 cents to #14.35 (£11.14). Elan gained 62 cents to close at #76 (£59.85) and the pharmaceutical stock, Bioglan Pharma, was up two cents to #3.745 (£2.95) on its debut. Among industrial stocks, CRH was back in light volumes, closing at £11.18 sterling (#16.64) but Smurfit provided some cheer, gaining five cents to close at #1.90 (£1.50), following strong shipment figures for the sector.
Other industrial stocks fared well. Ardagh was up 35 cents to #2 (£1.58) following its announcement of an intention to buy Rockware, Waterford Wedgwood rose a cent to 68 cents (54p) in four deals and Independent was up 11 cents to #4.11 (£3.24).
Among the food stocks, Glanbia, despite Monday's buoyant results, eased back another three cents to #2.25 (£1.77) following the 12-cent decrease the day before, after down-gradings by many analysts based on review of the sector.
Kerry, however, was 10 cents up at #12.40 (£9.77), although Greencore was down five cents to #3.60 (£2.84) and Fyffes was down two cents to #2.20 (ú1.73).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)