Ryanair sale and BoI breakthrough dampens ISEQ rise

The Dublin stock exchange saw its index earn a modest rise as moves continued in the Ryanair/Aer Lingus saga.

The ISEQ index of Irish shares finished 14.36 points better off to stand at 8904.43 by the end of the day.

Low-budget airline Ryanair saw its stock slip a cent to €9.73 on the day it was announced chief executive Michael O’Leary has sold shares in the airline worth almost €25m.

Mr O’Leary decided to sell 2.5 million shares – valued at €9.70 each – in the Icompany yesterday.

The deal was worth around €24.3m in total and comes as the Ryanair boss continues his bid for rival Aer Lingus.

However, Employee shareholders at Aer Lingus have rejected Ryanair's takeover bid. ESOT members this afternoon voted overwhelmingly against the budget airline's offer of €2.89 a share. After a vote of ESOT members was counted, it was found that 97% were against the proposed take-over. The Aer Lingus share price fell two cents to €2.67.

Listed pharmaceutical company United Drug has reported pre-tax profits of €55.2m for the year ending September 2006, up 14% from the previous year and slightly ahead of forecasts. The news has failed to effect the company's shares today as they dropped 7c to €3.70.

Rival Elan saw its share price lose ground with a 24c fall to €11.50.

In the financials, Bank of Ireland shares fell 13c to €16.35 despite a breakthrough in the pensions dispute between the bank and one of its unions. Both sides this afternoon agreed to a Labour Court hearing to resolve the outstanding issues while the union, Amicus, has agreed not to take any further industrial action until the hearing, to be scheduled next week.

Anglo Irish Bank climbed 5c to €14.45, IL&P leaped by 10c to €20 while AIB increased by 13c to €21.99.

Elsewhere, two construction firms had good fortune today with CRH seeing their shares rise 34c to €29.52 and Kingspan soaring 50c to €17.60.

Insurance giant FBD Holdings was also a major riser after a 45c increase to €41.29.