The closure of the US markets for the Labor Day holiday cast a pall over international markets yesterday and the Dublin stock exchange was no exception as traders adopted a wait-and-see attitude.
Overall, the ISEQ was back by 0.67 per cent in light trading which had most of the negative sentiment transferring to the financials. The financial index was back 1.3 per cent.
AIB was back 24 cents or 1.9 per cent to €12.14 (£9.56), Bank of Ireland eased back 5 cents or 0.6 per cent to $8.95 (£7.05), and Irish Life & Permanent shaved 12 cents or 1.2 per cent to €9.98 (£7.86).
One dealer said last week's mortgage rate decrease introduced by Irish Permanent in the face of Bank of Scotland competition may have contributed to the selling pressure among the financials.
Among the industrial stocks, Smurfit was one of the few gainers, closing 4 cents or 1.4 per cent higher at €2.88 (£2.27), amid positive sectoral sentiment. Ryanair was also up, putting on 13 cents or 1.5 per cent to close at €8.77 (£6.91). Elsewhere, CRH was back 34.8 cents to €20.45 (£16.11) and Elan was up €1.80 to €32.00 (£25.20).
Telecom Eireann, which relaunched itself as Eircom, failed to see its new image as a communications company translate into any share price optimism. The stock remained resolutely low, but did gain 3 cents or 0.7 per cent to close at €4.22 (£3.32) due to a large amount of trading in Britain.
