ISEQ dips slightly on caution day's trading
Caution was the key sentiment on the ISEQ today as investors worldwide weighted up whether yesterday's Madrid bombings were part of a wider campaign.
The index slumped after opening and slowly moved upward for the rest of the day before slightly dipping to close down eight points to 5093.
Anglo was in recovery mode after falls during the week following a Merrill Lynch downgrade.
The bank closed up 1c to €13.20. AIB also closed up 1c to €12.11 and Bank of Ireland slipped 10c to €10.30 with over 2.9 million shares traded.
MBO target Barlo moved down 1c to €0.42. Dermot Desmond now owns almost 18% of the company after buying 1.75m shares at €0.42 per share yesterday.
Hotel stocks failed to recover from the impact of the Madrid bombings with Jurys down 30c to €9.50 and Gresham closing down 4c to €1.18.
Ryanair was another loser that failed to recover from yesterday's losses, closing 14c to €4.65 with 3.2 million shares traded.
Elsewhere industrial services firm DCC moved down 17c to €11.18.
Independent News and Media was busy with over 2.6 million shares traded. The company closed down 3c lighter at €2.05.
Sales of the UK's Independent jumped 15.2% last month compared with February last year, based on the latest UK ABC newspaper circulation figures.
Technology stocks fared well today in markets throughout Europe, buoyed by good news from networking giant Oracle.
Iona Technologies today moved up 40 to close at €6.40.
Elan was in recovery mode, patching up losses suffered earlier in the week, and closing up 40c to €13.50 on fairly low volume.
Travel software company Datalax moved down 5c to €0.60 on low volume and Waterford Wedgwood slipped 1c to €0.25 with over 2.7 million shares traded.
