ISEQ loses some of yesterday's gains

The Dublin stock exchange lost some of its gains this morning despite Bank of Ireland sale of some of its UK assets and Elan's plans to relaunch its multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri.

The ISEQ was down 8.65 points to 6,710.7 by 11am this morning.

Elan and Biogen Idec are hoping to relaunch their drug Tysabri to the market as a treatment for multiple sclerosis. They said they expect to submit additional safety information to US regulators in the next few weeks. Following the announcement, Elan's share price has climbed 31 cents to €7.20.

However, Bank of Ireland has recorded a loss of 12 cents on its share price, down to €12.78, despite selling its Bristol & West network in the UK to Britannia Building Society for £150m (€218m).

It was among other negative starts in the financial sector as AIB saw their share price fall 15c to €17.55 and Irish Life and Permanent had a decrease of six cents to €15.04. Anglo Irish Bank bucked the trend with a two-cent rise to €10.97.

Construction firms had mixed results as Grafton recorded a 10c rise to €8.65, while both Kingspan and McInerney had 10c falls to €10.65 and €8.10 respectively.

Shipping group, Irish Continental, also had a 10c fall to €9.60, while IAWS recorded the largest fall of the morning, 21 cents, to stand at €11.37.