Iseq slips as bank shares weigh

The Iseq slumped this afternoon, falling more than 100 points as financial and construction shares weighed on the market.

The Iseq slumped this afternoon, falling more than 100 points as financial and construction shares weighed on the market.

By 3.12pm, the Irish index of shares had fallen 102.87 points to 3,264.67.

After an initial climb of 1.7 per cent in morning trade, AIB was down 5.1 per cent to €2.90 by 2.30pm, and continued to fall. By 3.10pm, the shares were trading 6.8 per cent off, a fall of 21 cent to €2.85.

Bank of Ireland was also performing poorly, falling 7.9 per cent to €2.90 by 2.30pm, although it pared some of the losses to climb to €2.94 by 3.10pm.

The Construction Industry Federation had yesterday raised concerns about Nama's capacity to lend to builders and to create a viable construction industry. The group has criticised the Government's decision to cut Nama's borrowing power from €10 billion to €5 billion in the draft bill, saying it thought the "bad bank" would require "multiples of €5 billion".

Irish Life & Permanent, which is not participating in Nama, fell 1.5 per cent in afternoon trade to €5.49.

Building stocks were also down, with CRH trading 2.8 per cent off at €19.40. Kingspan fell 3 per cent to €6.35while Grafton was down 0.8 per cent to €3.72.

Independent News and Media was down 2.3 per cent by 3.10pm. Goodbody Stockbrokers had earlier noted that the company's 32 per cent stake in media group APN was currently valued at more than IN&M itself.

Shares in C&C rose 1.6 per cent to €2.70, after falling 1.6 per cent in morning trade.