ISEQ down 54.87

The ISEQ index of Irish shares closed down 54.87 at 6278.28.

Shares in food company Glanbia were down 6c to €2.88 after they announced a 5.6% fall in operating profits in 2004.

The company said today that it made €83.5m last year, down from €88.5m in 2003. It blamed the fall in profits on a sharp downturn in fresh pork business.

Meanwhile, there was a negative response to today's announcement from the Jurys Doyle Hotel Group that pre-tax profits were up 7% last year to €45.3m. Shares were down 13c to €12.44 today.

Ryanair shares finished down 2c at €6.05 on a day of mixed news for the airline.

A jury ruled today that a Ryanair website advertisement promoting a “£4.99 one-way flight from London Stansted to Pisa, Italy” was not misleading or illegal because it included the words “excluding tax”.

Essex County Council’s trading standards department had prosecuted Ryanair claiming that the “£4.99 to Pisa excluding tax” website advertisement was a breach of the Consumer Protection Act because it did not plainly spell out the full cost of the flight.

But jurors at Chelmsford Crown Court found Ryanair not guilty of “a misleading price indication contrary to Section 20 (1) of the Consumer Protection Act 1987”.

The company also announced today that there had been record advance bookings at its new Shannon base, which starts on May 3, 2005.