The ISEQ closed 68 points lower in a mixed day's trading on the Irish Stock Exchange. Food stocks were weaker amid fears of an escalation of the foot and mouth crisis.
There was little corporate news in Ireland today so the market looked to London and New York for direction. After a weak opening caused by a sharp fall on Wall Street yesterday, the ISEQ crept in low-volume trade this afternoon.
CRH shares fell 98 cents to euro 16.60 after the surplus share from its rights issue were released to the market at an offer price of euro 16.50. The rights issue for shares at euro 10.50 was taken up by 87 per cent of eligible shareholders, CRH said.
AIB lost 9 cents to euro 11.00, Bank of Ireland added 3 cents and IL&P put on 15 cents to euro 12.00.
Food stocks came under pressure today with Golden Vale down 2 cents to 80 cents, Greencore fell 9 cents to euro 2.55. Glanbia was another faller, down 7 cents to52 cents.
London managed to recover some of its earlier losses this afternoon but weak TMTs ensured that the FTSE 100 closed in the negative territory after further overnight losses in the US and more profit warnings.
The blue-chip index closed down 25.6 points at 5,588.4.Colt Telecom shed 6.5 per cent, Vodafone dropped 3.4 per cent while Cable & Wireless lost 2.2 per cent. Telecoms equipment makers Marconi and Spirent were down 4.8 and 5.7 per cent respectively sparked by a recent profits warning from Canadian peer Nortel Networks.
US techs flipped-flopped in morning trading today while blue chips posted some modest gains after a tech-driven sell-off in the previous session.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 62.97 to 9,848.32, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite hovered around the 1,860 mark in mid-session.