Most markets give up gains

MOST stock markets gave away some of the gains made earlier in the week yesterday — failing in their bid for a third consecutive day’s rally.

Ireland’s ISEQ — by no means a disaster zone — fell by just under 1%, following strong gains on Monday and Tuesday.

While the likes of Aryzta, C&C (which suffered an earnings downgrade by Davy Stockbrokers), CRH, DCC, FBD, Icon and Paddy Power all suffered falls, Irish climbers were led by Tullow Oil — which announced a high quality oil find in its Enyenra-3A appraisal well off the coast of Ghana — Smurfit Kappa, Dragon Oil, Elan and Providence Resources, the latter despite a disappointing set of interim results. In all, the ISEQ rallied from earlier losses in the day to close down by just over 0.7%.