Dublin up slightly on day of healthy trading

The final session of the third quarter saw a healthy volume of shares traded in Dublin, with the Iseq remaining firm as other European markets fell marginally in the afternoon on the back of a negative purchasing managers index report from the US.

The Iseq index ended the day fractionally higher at 3, 347.

Bank of Ireland was the most traded stock and the star performer for the second consecutive day, with one trader noting significant international investor interest. A late surge pushed the stock 15 cent higher, to close at €3.42, a gain of just over 4.5 per cent.

AIB, which was trading as high as €3.36 at one stage during the session, finished the day at the lower end of the scale, closing marginally lower at €3.21.

Irish Life & Permanent saw less investor activity, ending the day 5 cent off at €5.62.

Independent News & Media continued to slide as markets digested the announcement of the proposed debt-for-equity solution to its outstanding €200 million debt problem. It closed the day almost 15 per cent lower at 20 cent, a fall of 3.5 cent.

Construction-related stocks had a mixed day. Building materials group Grafton advanced more than 2 per cent to close at €3.88, following strong third quarter results from British building group Travis Perkins.

Grafton's solid performance was matched by insulation company Kingspan, which gained 15 cent, or 2.4 per cent on the day. ISEQ heavyweight CRH was off 14 cent on the day finishing at €18.91.

Exploration company Providence Resources reversed losses earlier in the day to end the session flat at 47 cent, after the company reported an increase in pre-tax losses in the first six months of the year.

C & C continued to see a lot of investor attention ahead of results next week. It closed just over 3 per cent higher at €2.89.

European shares fell this evening after negative news from the US sent markets down in the afternoon.

In London, the FTSE 100 lost 0.5 percent to close at 5,134, almost 26 points lower. In Frankfurt the DAX ended at 5,675, down 38 or 0.67 per cent, while the Paris CAC closed at 3,795 points, down 18.69 or almost 0.5 per cent.

On Wall Street, stocks were down after a regional Purchasing Managers Index report showed a fall in consumer activity, overshadowing an earlier report which suggested that the rate of economic contraction was slowing.

Just before 6 pm GMT both the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq were down slightly, at 9,715 and 2,121 respectively.