Market suffers after America wakes up groggy

MARKET REPORT: After starting off in a fairly positive fashion yesterday morning things went downhill in the Irish market the minute America woke up.

US stocks opened weaker as the price of oil hit a fresh four-month high and results from US giants General Electric and Citigroup disappointed the markets. It didn't take long for Europe to follow suit.

The Iseq index of Irish shares ended the day down 34.52 at 7,424.78.

CRH was one of the biggest losers in a day where there was plenty of negative sentiment to choose from. Shares in the building materials group lost 44 cent, or 1.7 per cent, to end the day at €25.33. One dealer attributed the substantial drop in the share price to the group's US exposure, while another said the stock had had a good run lately and was in line for a fall.

Another big loser was pharmaceutical group Elan for the second day running, which lost almost 3 per cent to close down 36 cent at €11.80.

There was no specific news to send the stock downwards, but dealers said a meeting between one US broker and a group of doctors had likely knocked sentiment in the stock. This followed a downgrade by US broker Lehman Brothers.

Elsewhere DCC and Kingspan also took a bit of a battering, ending the day down 20 cent and 13 cent respectively. DCC closed at €18.50, while Kingspan ended the day at €11.07.

Ryanair lost 6 cent to close at €7.80, likely dented by the surge in the price of oil.

Moving in the other direction, Tullow Oil was one of the few gainers, adding 10 cent to end the day at €4.45. Australian exploration group Hardman Resources released results of a joint venture project it has with Tullow, describing them as encouraging.

The financials were mixed, with Anglo reversing the gains it achieved on Thursday following a new share placing. The stock dropped 3 cent to €12.77, while Bank of Ireland was up 3 cent €13.58.