ISEQ up at close

The ISEQ index of Irish shares closed up 35.53 points to 2,703.86, a gain of 1.33%.

Notable risers included Kerry Group, which added €1.32 or 5.35% to €25.92 on foot of an after-tax profit of €132m for H1 announced today.

Grafton Group, which posted pre-tax profits of €13.4m for the first six months of the year, added 14c or 5.61% to €2.69.

Elsewhere Icon added 95c to €18.25; DCC was up 70c to €19.76; Kingpsan gained 14c to €5.45 and CRH was up 18c to €12.28.

Financial stocks were mixed, with AIB unchanged at €0.77 but Bank of Ireland up 3c to €0.77 and Irish Life & Permanent adding 6c to €1.45 following its announcement of a H1 operating loss of €10m and confirmation of its plans to merge with EBS.

On the fallers' board, insurer FBD slipped 6c to €6.92 and Smurfit Kappa shed 4c to €6.75.

Ryanair, which today announced plans to cease services from its Belfast base, slipped 3c to €3.83.