ISEQ moves down in early trade

The ISEQ moved down 32 points to 5372 just before 10.30am, as yesterday's gains were given up in some sectors as investors sold off to book gains.

Elan fell foul to a spot of profit-taking, with shares down 19c to €16.75, and CRH gave up 10c to €17.45.

AIB moved down 14c to €12.55 and BoI was down 6c to €10.62. Irish L&P gave up most of yesterday's gains, moving down 13c to €13.87. Anglo also closed down, dropping 10c to €13.20.

The bank is announcing annual results on May 15.

Ryanair slipped 6c to €5.24 and financial services group FBD gave up 20c to €15.10 in early-morning trade.

Building group McInerney improved a little on yesterday's losses, adding 5c to €4.90.

In London, just before 11am , the FTSE 100 index was down 45 points at 4,470, with losses in the retailing sector.

The UK's largest clothing retailer, Marks & Spencer, slipped 2p to £2.73. The company said fourth-quarter sales were down 0.1%, or down 3.4% on a like-for-like basis. Chemist group Boots moved down 7p to £6.36 in morning trade.

Blue chip AB Foods failed to draw encouragement from a set of better-than-expected first-half results, with its shares slipping back 1p to £6.23.

The company posted interim underlying pretax profit of £238 (€360.4m), up from £216m (€327.1m) last year, and exceeding the forecast range.