ISEQ sees slight fall after morning trade

The ISEQ index of Irish shares fell by 5.55 points to 6817.74 today.

Eircom fell 12c to €2.09 in morning trade, amid renewed takeover speculation. Australian investment fund Babcock & Brown Capital and its manager have acquired a combined 12.5% stake in eircom, the fund announced today.

The stake acquisition has sparked takeover rumours at eircom, just weeks after it announced its plan to buy Meteor. Last month, eircom got approval to sell 313 million shares to existing shareholders to fund the €420m purchase of Meteor, which is owned by Western Wireless Corp.

Bank of Ireland was alone among the financial stocks in seeing a rise in share value, up 2c to €13.20.

AIB was down 10c to €17.85 while Anglo Irish Bank fell 3c to €11.46. Irish Life and Permanent was down 5c to €14.90.

Building materials group CRH reflected a buoyant construction sector with a 10c rise to €22.60. Construction activity in Ireland rose for the twenty-fifth successive month in September, according Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers' Index. Grafton saw a more modest rise, up 2c to €8.50.