ISEQ weighed down by Elan, financials

The Irish index of shares closed down 0.31%, or 14.71 points, to 4,762.94 weighed down by Elan and financial stocks.

AIB fell after picking up slightly during the day's trading. It closed €12.05, down €0.05. This is the fourth day in a row shares have fallen.

Bank of Ireland fell €0.07 to €10.48. The bank bought back 260,000 of its own shares yesterday as part of its restructuring program bringing the total number of shares repurchased since November's results to €2.75m.

Anglo was up €0.02 to €12.05. The bank hit a record high in yesterday's trading.Irish L&P was down €0.01 to €11.99.

The pharmaceuticals were down with Elan falling €0.22 to €4.45 after some profit taking. The company said it is to receive $11m in cash owed to it by Amarin after it disposed of its drug-delivery arm.United drug was down €0.10 to €2.25.

Losers included the Kerry group down €0.10 to €14.60 and the Heiton group which slid €0.08 to €3.70.

Paddy Power was up €0.06 to €7.07.

Heavy traders today included Waterford Wedgwood, the company reversed its earlier rise, falling back €0.01 to €0.21.

Greencore was down €0.03 to €3.00 and Ryanair, another heavy trader was down €0.03 to €6.35.

London shares traded lower today. The FTSE-100 index closed down 8.7 points to 4,369.5.

Mobile phone giant mm02, fell by 2.56% after Dresdner downgraded the firm saying that shares are trading ahead of operational improvements.

On Wall street, sentiment was dented after unemployment, although it fell, showed that growth in payrolls was weaker than economists had expected.

Also the world's largest chip maker Intel narrowed its revenue forecast for the current quarter , saying it now expects to post revenue between $8.5bn (€6.99bn) and $8.7bn, up from a previous range of $8.1bn to $8.7bn. Shares fell 3.16% in morning trade.

This afternoon the Nasdaq fell 0.97%,the S&P 100 slipped 0.36% and the Dow Jones was down 0.36%.

On the currency markets the euro is worth $1.21 and £0.702.