Market sags as leading stocks underperform

Dublin Report:The Irish stock market closed lower, hit by a weak performance from most of the leading stocks, albeit in relatively light volume.

Attention continued to focus on the first-half results season as Grafton delivered a good set of interim figures and Independent News & Media, Tullow Oil and Qualceram readied themselves to report today.

More than two million shares in Grafton were traded as the stock drifted off by 43 cent, or 4.8 per cent, to €8.50 despite reporting a 28 per cent rise in pre-tax profit. While the group has managed to extract greater-than-expected cost savings from its Heiton acquisition, investors remain concerned about the slowdown in British consumer spending.

Shares in Independent News & Media were unchanged at €2.54 but trading was busy with close to 3.5 million shares traded ahead of today's interim figures.

Tullow did not fare as well, losing five cent or 1.5 per cent in Dublin to €3.33. Elsewhere, DCC clawed back 10 cent or 0.6 per cent to €16.80 as analysts set about downgrading their forecasts following Monday's profit warning. Company broker Davy has cut its adjusted earnings per share forecast for by 6 per cent and is now looking for growth of just 5 per cent to 140.7 cent per share.

Jurys Doyle had a quiet day, closing unchanged at €18.50 as fewer than 400,000 shares changed hands. Stock purchases on Monday have left property developer Sean Dunne in control of 24 per cent of the company while the Beatty family shareholding now stands at nearly 9.5 per cent.

Banking stocks remained weak, with AIB shedding a further seven cent to €17.55, Bank of Ireland off 11 cent to €12.87 and Anglo Irish Bank giving up four cent to €11.08 although trading in all three was light.

CRH closed 25 cent, or 1.1 per cent, lower at €22.35 while Ryanair shed 10 cent, or nearly 1.5 per cent, to €6.75 despite announcing a new base in Cork Airport and new routes out of Shannon and Knock.