ISEQ rises 34 points on sluggish start to week

The ISEQ in Dublin was up 34 points to 5160 just before 11am today on fairly sluggish Monday morning volume.

AIB was on the rise, with shares up 16c, or 1.22%, to €13.82, ahead of its full year results tomorrow.

The bank is expected to report an 8% fall in pre-tax due to a Government levy, a pension fund adjustment and the strength of the euro.

Bank of Ireland added 14c to €11.14 and Irish L&P was 14c lighter at €10 on low volume. Anglo was also down, shedding 8c to €12.52 in early trading.

Shares in food group Kerry were down 5c to €14.75 ahead of the release of its annual results tomorrow.

Shares in Glanbia were unchanged at €2.50 after it announced the formation of a joint venture company to serve the UK cheese market with UK farmer owner Milk Link.

Fruit distributor Fyffes was down 2c to €1.70 this morning.

Construction group McInerney was up 30c to €5.50 this morning and CRH added 9c to €16.90.

Analysts are expecting the positive effects of acquisitions to offset sluggish market trends and unfavourable currency movements when the building giant reports full-year numbers on March 2.

London's FTSE 100 index gained 0.51% to 4,538 before 11am, boosted by gains in mobile phones group mmO2.

Its shares jumped 18.5% following reports that Dutch telecoms company Royal KPN has not ruled out a hostile bid for the operator.

At 11.30am today shares in Mmo2 had jumped nearly 15%, or 14p to £1.06.