ISEQ rallies after torrid morning’s trading

The ISEQ index recovered well this afternoon after a miserable morning of trading to slip 54.03 points to 7363.11.

Financial stocks endured heavy losses this morning as the ISEQ index of shares fell 108.25 to 7308.89 in early trading.

Irish Life & Permanent bore the brunt as its shares fell 34c to €17.95. Bank of Ireland was down 29c to €14, while AIB shed 31c to €18.08.

Anglo Irish lost 6c to stand at €11.14.

Meanwhile, CRH recovered well, after initially losing 56c, to slip a mere 5c to €25.24 by close of trade. Rivals Kingspan fared worse, losing 19c to €12.95.

Kerry Group also rallied to lose 12c to €16.18 from a 30c loss.

Shares at business support services group DCC plc were up 10c to €18 as it announced that it yesterday purchased 1,038,311 of its own shares at a price of €17.90 per share and at a total cost of €18.8m.

The 1,038,311 shares purchased are to be held as Treasury Shares.

The purchase represents 1.29% of its issued share capital (excluding Treasury Shares).

DCC now has a total of 8,526,489 shares held in Treasury and 79,702,915 shares in issue, excluding the Treasury Shares.

Troubled pharmaceutical giant Elan endured a poor performance, losing 40c to €12.89.