Market drops as shares sold off

THE ISEQ index remained in the red as profit-taking dominated across the board. The Dublin exchange closed down 63.71 points to 7996.88.

The financial sector was 101.89 points weaker overall. AIB gave up 21c to €19.54 despite announcing that it is to introduce limited charge-free banking for personal current account holders. Bank of Ireland fell by 8c to €15.27, Anglo-Irish weakened by 8c to €13.22, while Irish Life & Permanent lost 2c to €19.98.

In construction, giant CRH was 24c lower at €28.75, Grafton Group crossed the line down 9c at €10.66 while Kingspan was down 5c at €12.64.

Elsewhere, United Drug dropped 4c to €3.88 following a positive trading statement showing that operating profit and earnings for the first half of 2006 are expected to show double-digit growth over the first half of 2005.

Meanwhile, C&C climbed 7c to €5.65, Greencore added 5c to €3.95 with Ryanair shedding 13c to €7.62.