ISEQ moves into black
The ISEQ-index of Irish shares has shrugged off a disappointing performance in the first week of the new year by closing today's trading in more positive territory climbing 38.36 points to 9432.84.
Most of the major financial institutions moved upwards this afternoon with Bank of Ireland the biggest gainer climbing 24c at €17.49.
IL&P also made impressive gains with a 22c increase to €21.32.
Anglo Irish made more modest gains with a 2c increase to €15.42. Meanwhile AIB lagged behind falling 2c to €22.78.
Elsewhere shares at the no-frills airline Ryanair jumped 16c to €10.98 amid a flurry of controversy as Michael O'Leary rejected a British minister’s criticism of the company's environmental record as "foolish nonsense".
UK Environment Minister Ian Pearson had accused the airline of refusing to take the issue of greenhouse gas emissions seriously.
However, Ryanair has rejected the criticism as "foolish nonsense". Spokesperson Peter Sherrard said Ryanair is in fact Europe's greenest airline by far: "While the minister has been talking nonsense we been spending in excess of $10bn (€7.6bn) over the last five years in buying the most modern, youngest and fuel-efficient fleet of Boeing aircraft that exists in Europe and in so doing reduced per passenger fuel consumption by 45% and CO2 emissions by 50% per seat," he said.
