ISEQ slightly up, construction companies perform

The ISEQ index was up 16c at the end of the day at 6189.53.

Construction companies were among today’s best performers, with Grafton up 43c (5.5%) at €8.25 and Heiton rising 20c (2.8%) to €7.25. CRH closed up 5c at €19.88.

Irish Continental was 23c (2.1%) in the black on the day when Irish Ferries sailings resumed after SIPTU’s calling off of a 10-day strike.

The financials performed adequately. Anglo Irish Bank closed up 10c at €17.90. Irish Life and Permanent, following the release of an optimistic outlook, was also up 10c at €13.65.

AIB closed up 7c at €14.85, while Bank of Ireland (BoI) , the day’s top-traded share, finished the day unchanged at €12.15. BoI today announced a €9.3m addition to its UK Geared Property Fund.

FBD showed a more dramatic increase, up 30c (1.6%) to €18.75.

Elan, however, fell 30c (1.5%) to close at €20.00.

Food company IAWS was down 2c at €11.83 this afternoon.

Ryanair saw a gain of 1c to close at €5.48, on the day that it predicted record passenger figures for the Christmas period.

Viridian was unchanged at €9.90. The energy group announced that that Dipesh J Shah will become the group’s non-executive chairman upon Philip Rogerson’s retirement next April.