Financial shares perform poorly

IN line with markets across Ireland, the Irish Index of shares lost ground, closing down 33.11 points to 4317.33.

The financial shares performed poorly. Bank of Ireland lost a cent to €10.59 after announcing that it had completed a €300 million funding arrangement with a German bank in order to support small and medium size enterprises. Allied Irish Bank lost 1.46% to €12.85 despite announcing that it had repurchased a further €2.625 million shares on Friday at average price of €13.057.

Other financials to suffer were Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Life & Permanent, falling 1.79% and 1.42% to €7.68 and €9.75 respectively. On a positive note, IFG gained 4.62% to 68c.