Marginal gain for Irish shares index

IRISH financial stocks had a mixed day yesterday even though the ISEQ index of Irish shares just about reversed an early slide to officially start the week with a marginal gain.

On a relatively slow day for the Dublin exchange, it managed to shake off a weak start to stay above the 2,700 point mark and post a modest 20 point (0.73%) rise. Elsewhere in Europe, there were marginal declines for the main exchanges.

Of the Irish banks AIB was the only one to make a gain – up by nearly 7.5% (2c) on Friday’s close to reach 29c. The soon-to-be largely nationalised bank yesterday announced it has transferred a further €3.2bn worth of loans, relating to 20 customers, to NAMA.