ISEQ loses ground
The ISEQ was down 28.98 points to 6,276.27 today, with downward shifts for many of the market's heavy-hitters.
Building materials group CRH was down 47 cent to €19.63, despite a positive trading statement which boosted expected 2004 profits through the €1bn barrier, up from profits of €864m in 2003.
In today's statement, CRH said a record estimate of 77,000 houses were built in Ireland in 2004, compared with 68,800 in 2003. The company added that demand from the infrastructure sector was also strong in 2004 but eased somewhat in the closing months as some major projects were completed ahead of schedule.
In other market news, almost all of the financials were down. AIB saw a fall of 10c to €15.26. Bank of Ireland stock fell by 8c to close at €12.25. Anglo Irish Bank saw a larger drop of 18c, bringing its shareprice to €18.08. Irish Life and Permanent bucked the trend with a 1c increase to €13.92.
Irish Life and Permanent made news toady by releasing a study which revealed high consumer confidence going into 2005.
The number of respondents who said they expected to be better off this year was higher than the number who expected to be worse off, according to the survey.
Ryanair fell back 1c to €5.42 today as it announced passenger growth of 9% for December 2004 compared to 2003 figures.
The airline carried 2,197,016 passengers to bring the full year total to 26,582,833.
Figures also showed 97% of all passenger bookings were made over the internet.
Today's most traded shares were CRH, AIB, Bank of Ireland, Anglo Irish and Elan.
