ISEQ slides nearly 3% as Ryanair, banks dip

The ISEQ was 155 points lower at 5,101 just after 11am, as the main banks slid about 1% and Ryanair slumped.

Shares in the low-cost airline fell by more than 25% after the company warned that lower fares would results in a fall in its full-year profits. The shares had dropped €1.75 to €5.00 at just after 11am today, with concern also about the impact of next week's EU Commission ruling on its Charleroi hub.

All the banks were down, including Irish L&P. BOI fell 20c to €11.40 and AIB shed 21c to €13.26. Irish L&P, finally catching this week's negative trend in the financials, fell 15c to €13.90 and Anglo was 12c lighter at €13.83.

CRH was a faller, down 17c to €16.98 and Independent News & Media surrendered some of yesterday's gains, falling 5c to €5.04.

IAWS was down for the fourth day in a row, falling 10c to €9.15. Some of today's few gainers were McInerney, up 15c to €5.20 and financial services group IFG, was up 5c to €1.20.

Thirdforce, the owner of the European Computer Driving Licence said at its AGM today that it expects to move closer to profitability this year following its acquisition of Electric Paper in 2003. In the 12 months to June 2003, turnover rose 19% to €3.98m, with Electric Paper contributing €2.23m for the last three months. The share was unchanged at €0.40 this morning.

The FTSE100 was up 17 points to 4,464 at 11.30am. Retailers were performing well with Next up 16p to £13.16 and Marks & Spencer up 5p to £2.80. Vodafone was down 3p to £1.42 . Overall, Vodafone added 4.3m new customers in the three months to the end of December, giving a worldwide total of 130.4m, however weaker figures from Japan cast a shadow on this increase.