ISEQ closes down, Ryanair slips 5%
Dublin's ISEQ index closed down 23 points to 5329, with gains clocked in Anglo and losses weighing in at over 5% Ryanair.
Gresham Hotel was 8c worse off at €1.10. The hotel group said today that its largest shareholder, Israeli group Red Sea , had rejected a revised approach of €1.35 a share for the company that had been made by a consortium of investors, rendering it impossible for the offer to be recommended by the board.
The banks were mixed. BOI added 5c to €10.52 and Anglo moved up 17c t o €13.17. AIB slipped 3c to €12.40 and Irish L&P closed unchanged.
Elan gave up recent gains, slipping 11c to €17.00 and United Drug was down 3c to €2.52.
Independent News and Media was busy today closing steady at €1.98.
Adding to the downside Ryanair slipped 28c to €5.10 and Jurys hotel was down 12c to €10.18 ahead of next week's AGM.
Dublin based software company Iona Technologies moved up 15c to €5.90m after it said yesterday it had reached profitability, though turnover was lower on the same period last year.
The FTSE in London closed up 31 points to 4537.
Drinks giant Diageo moved up 31p to £7.66 after announcing yesterday it was to move its London Guinness brewing operation to Dublin.
Accounting software giant Sage suffered a spot of profit taking as investors eyed yesterday's robust results. The share moved down 3p to £1.73.
Airport operator BAA also saw some profit taking after announcing a strong growth in traffic figures yesterday, moving down 7p to £5.21.
Meanwhile on the currency markets the euro strengthened against the dollar after a measure of U.S. consumer confidence slipped to its weakest level since December and industrial production unexpectedly fell in March.
The dollar was down 0.4% against the euro to $1.2014 in early US trading.
