ISEQ suffers 21 point fall

The ISEQ fell 21.54 points to 6,597.38 today in a mixed day for stocks on the Dublin market.

Insurance group, FBD Holdings, suffered a 53 cent slump in its stock to land at €20.07, while Iona Technologies tumbled 30 cents to €4.40. However, this was slightly offset by a 38 cent price climb from Paddy Power who now stand at €12.11.

There was a subdued reaction to Elan's third quarter results whose stock price fell 21 cents to €21.38. The Ireland-headquartered US pharmaceutical company has cut losses by more than $130m (€101.8m) in 2004 over the previous year.

In an announcement today of its full-year 2004 financial results, Elan said net loss was down from $508.7m (€398.5m) to $375.9m (€294.4m).

Eircom stock was also down, by five cent to 1.94, after the company announced operating profits of €195m for the nine months to December 31 2004, before restructuring programme costs and exceptional operating costs.

Meanwhile, Ryanair stock was down by a cent to €6.68. The airline announced a rate of 93% of prompt arrivals for its flights in January.

In the financials, there was a positive trend across the board, barring Irish Life and Permanent, which saw a two-cent fall to €14.05. AIB rose three cents to €15.47, Anglo Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland were both up six cents to €18.89 and €12.33 respectively.