ISEQ closes down as Elan tumbles
The ISEQ in Dublin surrendered gains from an early rally. Elan shares were sold off following a cautious broker note. Dolmen said this afternoon that it recommended investors book their gains as Elan is currently overpriced compared to its peers in the industry.
Shares had climbed 22% yesterday and 27% on Wednesday on the strength of the potential of the company's Antegren drug. This evening, shares slumped 6.10%, or 65c, to €10.00.
Also on the downside Ryanair shed 14c to €4.76 and both the main banks closed down, AIB shed 22c to €13.23 ahead of next Tuesday's full year results and BoI was 15c lighter at €11.00. Irish Life & Permanent, which has full year results due on March 3, slipped 15c to 1390.
Elsewhere, Greencore was busy today with over two million shares traded. Fruit distributor Fyffe's closed up 1c to €1.72 and food stock Glanbia was up 5c to €2.50. Kerry group gained 20c to €14.75 ahead of next Tuesday's full year results.
Some of the smaller stocks showed large percentage gains, though mainly on low volume.
Personal care company IWP closed up 2c, or 6.06%, to €0.35 and Thirdforce was up 2c to €0.34.
Tullow Oil added 5c to €0.34 and Qualceram was up 15c, or 8.57%, to €1.90.
Barlo Group closed up 1c to €0.42 as shares continue to climb in anticipation of an MBO, with over 1.2 million shares traded. Yesterday, over four million shares in the stock were traded and market sources assume that Dermot Desmond was behind some of the buying.
Desmond bought 2.2 million shares earlier this week at €0.41c, bringing his overall holding up to 7.7% of the company.
The FTSE100 in London ended today's session down 0.6 points at 4,515.0, down on an earlier rally which saw the index reach 4,549.6, its best reading since July 2002.
Oil stocks boosted the market with BP up 6p (9c) to £4.25 (€6.30) and Shell gained 6.75p (10c) to £3.59 (€5.33) after several positive broker notes, suggesting the two main oil firms were set for three healthy years amid growing demand for gas and oil.
Publisher Reed Elsevier jumped 15.25p (23c) to £5.03 (€7.50), after the stock gained 8.3% after yesterday's well-received full year results from the Anglo-Dutch publisher.
