Jurys jumps on ISEQ

Shares in Juys Doyle were up 10 cent to €18.90 this afternoon following the news that property developer Sean Dunne had sold his 28% shareholding for a profit of €20m.

In a statement today, the board of DTC Construction Services said it had decided to dispose of its Jurys Doyle shareholding and not to make a bid for the company.

Sean Dunne said he thought that a minority shareholding in a public company over which he had no say was negative for both parties.

Last month Mr Dunne bought a 4.8 acre site in Ballsbridge from Ireland's biggest hotels group. He paid €260m for the site, financially the biggest land deal to date in Irish history.

That capped off a quiet day on the Dublin Stock Exchange which saw the ISEQ stand at 6726.2 up 5.65 points, by the end of trading.

Eircom slipped 1c to €2.31 despite the news that Swiss telecoms firm Swisscom had confirmed that it is in talks with eircom on a possible takeover deal.

Last night it was reported that eircom had agreed to open its books exclusively to the Swiss company when the two agreed an indicative price offer of above €2.40.

All the financial stocks fell today. Irish Life and Permanent saw the heaviest loss, falling 7c to €15.43. AIB fell 5c to €17.25, Bank of Ireland fell 3c to €12.76 and Anglo Irish Bank fell 1c to €11.38.

Bookmaker Paddy Power fell 20c €13.30.

Pharmaceutical company Elan rose 6c to €7.46.