ISEQ reports slight improvement

The ISEQ index reported a slight rise, up 0.22%, or 11 points, to 5,308 in early trading today.

The banks all showed gains.

AIB, Bank of Ireland and Anglo were all 2c higher just before 11am, with AIB being the busiest of the lot.

Irish Life & Permanent was solid though, adding 27c to €13.97.

Movers included Industrial services group DCC up more than 2%, jumping 25c to €11.85. Building group Grafton moved up 11c to €5.95.

Dragon Oil was up 3c to €0.54 on healthy volume.

Overall the bunch of food stocks did not fare well. Glanbia was down 8c to €2.20, IAWP shed 8c to €9.52 and Greencore was 2c lighter to €3.43.

Kerry group bucked the trend here, rising 5c to €15.90, and with the dollar getting back on track, fruit distribution firm Fyffes fell 3c to €1.72.

ThirdForce issued a statement saying it was in talks on an acquisition, having seen its share price jump in recent months.

The e-learning company was flat at €0.44 today, after having risen over 60% in the past week.

Paddy Power was down 20c to €7.50. The company announced this morning that a lucky customer had won €424,710.

On the currency markets the euro is now worth $1.248 and £0.692.