Dublin's ISEQ index of Irish shares has ended 2009 at 2,975, up almost 27% over the year and a turnaround from 2008's fall of more than 66%. It is still well short of the 10,000 mark it hit in early 2007, however.
In a half-day of trading, the ISEQ ended the day 37 points (1.2%) lower. The main gainer today was Aer Lingus, up 8.3% to 65 cent, but food group Kerry dropped almost 5% to €20.58. Pharmaceutical company Elan lost 6.7% to €4.20.
For 2009 as a whole, there were mixed fortunes for banking shares, with AIB losing 30% of its value to end at €1.20 today. But Bank of Ireland gained 58%, ending at €1.32, while Irish Life & Permanent performed even more strongly, chalking up a gain of 157% to close at €3.30.
Among the other big winners among the major companies were DCC, which gained 86% in value in 2009, and Smurfit Kappa, whose share price more than trebled. Financial services group IFG also more than doubled its value. Paddy Power and Kingspan were also among the strongest performers.
Apart from AIB, one of the poorer performing big name stocks was Aer Lingus, which began the year trading at €1.50 and ended it at 65 cent.
