Quiet day on ISEQ, despite big announcements

On the day that the Government announced a falling exchequer deficit and the European Central Bank left its key interest rate unchanged, the ISEQ was up 1.55 at 5542.17.

South Wharf, the property development group formerly known as glass company Ardagh, recorded a 30% increase in its share price, up 45c to €1.95.

It was another bad day for Iona Technologies, however, down 23c (6.3%) to €3.40.

Pharamceutical company WCRX (formerly Galen) showed an increase of 46c (5.3%) on this morning’s price, closing at €9.10.

Another of the North’s top companies, Ulster Television, did not perform so well, losing 21c (3.7%) to close at €5.54.

Insurer FBD continued to perform well, closing up 20c (1.2%) at €16.70.

The busiest share of the day, CRH, closed down 16c at €19.09.

On the financial front, Anglo Irish Bank was up 12c at €14.30, AIB gained 5c to €13.20, and Irish Life & Permanent was up 4c at €12.44.

Bank of Ireland made a loss of 4c per share, closing at €11.22 on the news that the bank was fined over €500,000 by the British Financial Services Authority for failing to have in place systems to detect a number of high-risk cash transactions to the value of almost €3m.

Ryanair closed up 4c at €4.31. The low-fares airline announced four new routes out of Glasgow earlier today.

Despite announcing a 44.2% increase in half-yearly pre-tax profits, Fyffes was unchanged at close of play at €1.84.

Eircom was also static, closing at €1.52 despite heavy trading.