ISEQ up, but bad day for Iona
There were generally good performances from the country’s top companies this morning, with the ISEQ gaining 16.6 points to stand at 5412.84 at 10.30am.
However, Iona Technologies had a disastrous morning, with its share price plummeting 47c, or 11.8%, to €3.53.
Things were also bad for insurer FBD, down 45c (2.7%) to €16.55, despite announcing operating profits for the first six months of this year of €65.9m, up from €61.8m last year.
Things were better for Ryanair. While changes at rival Aer Lingus dominated the news headlines, brisk trading saw Ryanair sneak up 11c on the exchange, an increase of 2.6%, to find itself at €4.27 mid-morning.
The financials had a satisfactory morning. Anglo Irish Bank was the most-traded stock, up 10c to €13.59. AIB was unchanged at €12.84. Irish Life and Permanent saw itself 2c in the black, at €12.27.
Bank of Ireland was up 6c at €10.86, announcing impressive figures for its life and pensions provider, BoI Life.
Construction company Kingspan also saw a modest gain, up 2c to €4.85.
