ISEQ up in early trading

The ISEQ index of shares bounced back from yesterday's losses with early gains of 31.9 to 7634.28 this morning.

Construction stocks helped the market stay in the black as CRH was up 35c to €25.70, while Abbey plc gained 25c to €8.90.

Meanwhile, shares at eircom were unchanged at €2.19 as it reported revenue of €483m during the first quarter of this year, an increase of 21% on the same period in 2005.

The telecoms firm says its margins were down slightly during the three-month period due to the €420m acquisition of Meteor last year, but the mobile phone section's earnings of €13m were in line with expectations.

The financials continued to struggle this morning. Anglo Irish was worst off with a 10c dip to €11.56. Bank of Ireland was down 7c to €14.08, while AIB was down 4c to €19.78.

Irish Life & Permanent bucked the trend, gaining 25c to €18.75.