The Iseq was marginally off this afternoon, hovering just above the 3000 mark as bank shares rose and construction stocks offered some support to the index.
There was decent volume in Glanbia shares, which were off 1.2 per cent to trade at €2.57 by 1.30pm. The company announced its full year results today and confirmed it was in talks on selling its Irish dairy division to shareholder Glanbia Co-operative.
Traders noted that no details about the timing or financing of the deal had been disclosed, but were drawing the conclusion that the co-op would dispose of a significant amount of its holding in Glanbia to fund the purchase.
AIB was up 4.9 per cent just after 1.30pm, trading at €1.39 compared to Bank of Ireland's €1/16, down 2.9 per cent. Irish Life and Permanent was slightly off this afternoon, shedding 0.3 per cent to €3.08.
Aer Lingus was down 1.6 per cent to 59 cent early this afternoon. The company announced today it would seek 230 compulsory redundancies among cabin crew after staff in the division rejected a cost cutting plan aimed at saving the airline €97 million. The personnel concerned will be offered statutory redundancy terms.
The airline also said all 1,200 Aer Lingus cabin crew in the Republic of Ireland were to be offered new contracts on lower salary scales and changed work practices.
Smurfit Kappa stock was also up this afternoon, adding 4 per cent to €6.44. Grafton was up 0.6 per cent to €2.92, while Kingspan was up 1 cent to €5.65.
Elsewhere, weak data and concerns over Britain's fiscal problems hit sterling today, while world stocks inched up to hover near their recent six-week highs and commodities rose on the back of strong trade data from China.
Sterling lost 0.4 per cent to trade below $1.50 at $1.4933 after data showed an unexpected fall in British manufacturing output in January. The British currency was already under pressure on concerns over its sovereign rating and political uncertainty. It has lost 7.5 per cent versus the dollar this year on concerns Britain may be stuck in political deadlock after an election expected in May.
The euro ticked 0.1 per cent higher against the US currency at $1.3608, after trading as low as $1.3542 earlier in the day following ratings agency Fitch said yesterday it still had a negative outlook on Portugal's credit rating.
World stocks measured in the MSCI All-Country World Index inched up 0.1 per cent to 300.72, hovering near a six-week high of 301.61 reached on Monday, though they were still up 66 per cent from a low hit one year ago.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was flat, though Greece's share benchmark advanced 1.8 per cent as worries over the country's debt problems eased after Athens last week announced more austerity measures and secured €5 billion of debt funding from the market.
US stock index futures gained 0.1 to 0.3 per cent, indicating a higher start for Wall Street ahead of wholesale inventories data for January.
Additional reporting - Reuters
