Market down on low volumes

THE ISEQ began the week after the bank holiday weekend with a loss of 28.88 points to 2,976.29. Other European shares slipped after a strong recent run, dragged back by mining stocks on the back of lower metals prices.

In the financial sector, Bank of Ireland fell back 2.9c to 25.1c. AIB dropped 0.1c to 22.9c. Irish Life & Permanent decreased 1.2c to 13.8c.

Insurance group FBD Holdings said in an interim management statement that policy volumes were flat in the first three months of 2011 and said it remains confident of delivering full year operating earnings per share of 130c to 140c. The shares closed down 2.5c at €7.22.

In the construction sector, CRH competitor, Cemex has reported Q1 EBITDA of $519m, below the consensus estimate of $545.5m. CRH shares slipped 11.5c to €16.63. Grafton Group gave up 6.4c to €3.55, while Kingspan slid 4c to €6.56.