ISEQ index down on financials, Ryanair

The ISEQ shed 67 points, or 1.39%, to 4695 just before 5pm weighted by poor financial stocks and Ryanair.

Financials were hit badly with Anglo falling €0.19 to €10.11, Bank of Ireland dropped €0.24 to €10.40

and Irish L & P was down €0.15 to €12.05. AIB was also down €0.05 at €10.11.

Construction stocks fared badly with Grafton down €0.08 to €5.07 and CRH falling €0.13 to €15.57.

Heiton shed €0.10 to €3.85 and McInerney holdings bucked the trend adding €0.02 to €4.08.

Ryanair was down €0.30 to €6.40 following the annoucement that the low cost airline was offering free flights and was knocking £1 off landing charges, effectively paying people to travel. Uncertainity also remains over the Charleroi ruling in Brussles.

In London the FTSE 100 index was down 50.5 points to 4,346.5.

London investors were cautious ahead of US President George Bush's state visit tomorrow and the continuing terrorist attacks around the world.

Mobile phone group mm02 today reported an interim pre-tax profit of £26m (€37.39m) compared to a loss of £259m (€372.48) in the same period last year. However, shares were down 2.5p to £0.66 after it said it expects a difficult trading year in 2004.