Markets record unspectacular day

Bourses across Europe continued to tread water or ease back off the gains made earlier in the new year.

Investors are in consolidation mode as they seek to bank profits realised on the back of the recent strong run and assimilate reports for the US as earnings season finally gets into full swing.

JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs were among the early blue chips to reveal quarterly earnings and both banks reported robust sets of results beating estimates and analysts’ consensus expectations. The ISEQ index was one of the few gainers, tacking on 9.82 points to finish on 3,461.86.

Shares in the construction stocks were mixed as CRH rose 5.5c to €14.73. Kingspan and Grafton Group were laggards shipping 10.5c to €8.52 and 2c to €4.16.