Fyffes surges on ISEQ

Fruit distributor Fyffes saw its share price rise by almost 5% today following their announcement of a 27.9% increase in pre-tax profits for the year to the end of December 2005 thanks to high banana prices.

The company said trading in 2006 so far had been in line with expectations.

Pre-tax profits rose to €105.8m last year from €82.7m in 2004 while revenues rose by 11.3% to €2.2bn from €1.9bn the previous year.

Adjusted to exclude amortisation and separately disclosable items, fully diluted earnings per share (EPS) rose to 25.23 cent from 20.14 cent in 2004 - a gain of 25%. Basic earnings per share climbed 28.2% to 23.79 cent.

Fyffes' stock was up 10c to €2.14 by 11am this morning.

That failed to excite a sluggish ISEQ which stood at 7851.6 points, down 35.72 by 11am this morning.

Building materials company Readymix also received a boost this morning rising 5c to €2.30.

This follows their report of a 148% jump in pre-tax profits to €32.3m for the year to the end of December 2005, up from €13m in 2004.

Profits were boosted by the sale of a disused quarry in Co Antrim for €20m.

Sales for the year came to €248.1m, just marginally higher than the 2004 sales figure of €247.5m.

The financial heavyweights all suffered losses today. AIB had the heaviest losses, down 30c to €19.05. Anglo Irish Bank fell 13c to €13.60, Bank of Ireland slipped 7c to €14.96 while Irish Life and Permanent fell 8c to €18.27.

Elsewhere pharmaceutical company Elan fell 50c to €10.66.