Iseq lower on quiet trading day

The Iseq was down fractionally this lunchtime, on what has been a very slow morning on the Dublin market

The Iseq was trading down marginally at  2,900.02 at 12.30 pm.

US markets are closed today for a public holiday, while markets across Europe looked tentatively forward to this evening's meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels at which their response to Greece's financial crisis will be discussed.

There was a scarcity of stock-specific news this morning, although Independent News & Media was trading down 1 per cent at €0.094 following the announcement by the media group that it is extending the deadline for its exclusive talks with Alexander Lebedev about the future ownership of INM's London-based titles, The Independent and Independent on Sunday.

Other movers included Kerry Group which was off 2.25 per cent at €21.50. Ryanair saw some investor interest. At 12.30 pm it was trading up just under a half a percent at €3.44.

There was a mixed performance from financials. At 12.30 pm Irish Life & Permanent was up just under 2 per cent this at €2.79. Bank of Ireland and AIB were both lower, both trading around 1 per cent lower.

Across Europe, stock markets were higher as banks regained some ground lost in the previous two sessions and miners tracked firmer metals, but investors stayed cautious due to persistent worries over Greece's debt woes.

By 1201 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.8 per cent at 995.79 points. The index, which rose nearly 26 per cent in 2009, is down 4.8 per cent so far this year, partly on worries over Greece's fiscal situation.

Banks were among the top gainers, with the DJ STOXX banking sector index rising 1.5 per cent after falling 1.3 per cent both on Thursday and Friday. Standard Chartered, HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, Credit Agricole and UBS rose between 0.7 to 2.5 per cent.

In Asia, stocks fell for the first time in a week on concern earnings will suffer after China bolstered steps to cool its economy and Japan said deflation accelerated.
Japan's Nikkei average fell 0.8 per cent or 78.89 points to 10,013.30. with worries about global growth in the wake of China's lifting of bank reserve requirements outweighing better-than-expected Japanese gross domestic product data.

Shares in Toyota Motor Corp fell 3 percent after the carmaker said on Friday it would recall 8,000 pickup trucks in the United States, the latest in a series of recalls that have hurt the automaker's sales.

Additional Reporting: Reuters