DUBLIN REPORT: Iseq: 2,957.35 (-29.83) Settlement date: November 19th

THE DUBLIN market was back in the red yesterday as Irish banks fell out of favour with investors. The Iseq index of Irish shares underperformed its European peers, slipping by about 1 per cent to 2,957.35.

The main financial stocks came under pressure, dragging the index down. Bank of Ireland and AIB came off by more than 8 per cent and 7 per cent respectively to finish weakly at [euro]1.72 and [euro]1.80. Irish Life & Permanent wasn't immune from the sell-off either, tumbling more than 5 per cent to [euro]4.41.

One broker noted that a report that the Greek central bank was putting pressure on its banks to fund their liquidity from sources other than the EU may have weighed on Irish banks, even though the situation is quite different here. Elsewhere, the main newsflow of the day came from building supplier Kingspan , which issued a positive trading statement. Brokers reported that there were a few buyers around in the morning session, and the stock closed up about 4 per cent - or 23 cent - better at [euro]5.62.

Paddy Power continued to benefit from the strong management statement it issued last Thursday, adding close to 13 cent to [euro]24.75.

Healthcare services provider United Drug was under pressure on the day, and by the end of the session was off almost 6 per cent at [euro]2.25.

Packaging group Smurfit Kappa also came back a little after a very strong run of form over the last fortnight. The stock slipped 1.3 per cent to [euro]6.02, a fall which traders attributed to profit-taking.

CRH performed strongly for most of the day, trading up as high as [euro]17.78, but came under pressure into the close and finished up 12 cent at [euro]17.49. Although the cement giant has the largest weighting on the index, this performance wasn't good enough to pull the Iseq back into the black.

Originally published by CAROLINE MADDEN.

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