Grafton down despite strong 2003 performance

The ISEQ index of Irish shares was down 48.72 points to close at 5179.62 today.

Shares in Grafton slipped 17c to €2.05

Earlier the building materials group reported pre-tax profits of €102m for last year, up 27% on the previous year.

Irish profits rose 26% to €44.8m.

Sales were up 11.8% to €384.5m, with builders' providers Chadwick's helped by the return to strong growth in the residential sector.

Grafton's DIY chain Woodie's saw sales grow by more than 12% to €110.3m, helped by the opening of two new stores.

Kevin Melia has retired as a non-executive director of the ISE-listed technology group Horizon from today.

The system integrator and distributor of information technology had announced yesterday that it had placed over €1m of director's shares with institutional investors.

Horizon's share price dropped 12c to €1.00 on the back of the news.

Fruit importers Fyffe's reported that it would add a profit of €14m in exceptional items after it sold property in Dundalk, Co Louth and that it plans to sell property in Kenmare, Co Kerry.

Shares in the company dipped 6c to close at €1.54.

Tourism figures saw a 5% increase in the last quarter of 2003, although this transferred to just a 2.2% increase in revenue. Shares in hotel group Jury's Doyle were up 2c to €9.97.

Financials were weak with AIB down 11c to €12.17, Anglo Irish down 45c to €13.58 and BOI down 3c to €10.52