ISEQ continues to slide

The ISEQ index of Irish shares showed a dip of 30.59 points today, down to 7301.97.

The financial sector saw static-to-downward moves across the board. Irish Life & Permanent share price was down 5c to €18.20 as it announced it has seen a surge in lending for the first six months of 2006.

The lendings hike is being driven largely by mortgages, the value of which is expected to top €4bn in the first six months of the year, compared to €2.5bn for the same period last year.

AIB fared best in the sector, down just 5c to €18.20. Bank of Ireland lost 14c to €13.61 while Anglo Irish fell 15c to €10.95.

Tullow Oil recorded the highest increase of the day, up 29c on its opening price to €5.15 after Hardman Resources, the operator of the Waraga-1 well test in Uganda in which Tullow is a 50% partner, announced the well flowed oil to surface. A stabilised rate has been established sufficient to derive composition, flow characteristics and key reservoir parameters.

Meanwhile, eircom shares fell 2c to €2.17 as it emerged that ComReg has ruled that eircom has discriminated against other telecoms operators.

The ruling arises from the provision of customer information which could have given eircom an unfair advantage over its competitors.

An investigation by ComReg has confirmed that sales agents for eircom's retail division were able to get other operators' customers' account numbers directly from eircom's wholesale systems.