ISEQ weighed down by banks, construction stocks

In Dublin, the Irish index of shares was down 9 points, or 0.19%, to 4,749 at 10.30am.

The banks did not fare well. Bank of Ireland shed €0.02 to €10.46. AIB was down €0.02 to €12.03, still suffering after last week's trading statement. Anglo reversed some of last week's substantial gains by falling €0.05 to €12.00.

Irish L&P in keeping with the downward trend fell €0.14 to €11.85 and FirstActive was down €0.01 to €6.15. The bank's new parent company Royal Bank of Scotland said today in it's trading statement that it was on track to meet expected profits for the year.

The construction sector also did not fare well. CRH was down €0.15 to €16.35 after over a million shares changed hands. Fellow construction stock Kingspan shed €0.02 to €3.98.

Greencore was up another €0.05 to €3.05 this morning after last Friday saw 4% of the company crossing hands in a single transaction to an unnamed investor, fueling takeover speculation.

The pharmaceuticals put in a positive performance , Elan rose €0.17 to €4.62 after saying it was in talks on the disposal of some of its European operations and Northern Ireland-based drugmaker Galen saw a rise of €0.27 to €10.74.

Elsewhere Ryanair was down €0.07 to €6.28.

In London, the FTSE was down 0.35% to 4351 just after 11.30am this morning. Cable & Wireless share price jumped nearly 10% to £1.41 after announcing they had finally shifted their underperforming US operations in a better deal than was expected.

The euro is worth £0.703 and $1.218. The strengthening of the euro against the dollar is attributed to Friday's worse than expected US jobs numbers.