The Irish market eased into the bank holiday weekend with a lacklustre day’s trading that saw the Iseq index slip 1 per cent on tiny volumes.
CRH gave up some of the strong gains recorded yesterday, and at one point the cement stock dipped to a low of €12.40. By the end of the session it had traded back up to €12.55, but was still off 35 cent on the day.
Grafton Group also found itself under pressure, sliding 1.5 per cent, or five cent, down to €3.18.
Banking stocks were all “a bit drifty”, one broker noted. After trading between a range of 38 and 40 cent, AIB settled at 39 cent by the close.
Irish Life & Permanent, which today was named as one of the final bidders for EBS, gave up 5.5 cent to finish at just over €1.59.
Meanwhile Bank of Ireland failed to get a boost from the announcement it has agreed to sell Bank of Ireland Asset Management to Boston-based financial firm State Street, as the disposal of this unit was well-flagged and came as no surprise to the market. The stock slipped one cent to finish at 60 cent, on lower volumes than those seen in recent sessions.
Most stocks across the index closed lower today, which traders attributed to profit-taking after the market’s decent run yesterday.
The management team of drinks manufacturer C&C is on an investor roadshow in the United States this week, but that didn't prevent the stock from slipped slightly to €3.17 today.
One of the few stocks to finish in positive territory was bookmakers Paddy Power, which jumped 1.7 cent to just under €28.53.
Overall, the Iseq underperformed its European counterparts, finishing down almost 29 points at 2,719.65.