Traders hopeful Iseq will bounce back tomorrow

Traders in Dublin are confident tomorrow will bring a bounce to the Dublin market after a late rally today ran out of time.

In volatile trading, only nine stocks managed to make any gains today - and only one of those, Kerry, was trading in any volume. That aside, the session was marked by volatile trading and unrelenting pessimism until the opening of New York trade. Thereafter, the market recovered some of its losses. traders said the more positive trend continued after the close of official trading.

Financial stocks fared worst today with Bank of Ireland shedding 7.5 per cent of its value on a day when Dresdner Kleinwort urged investors to sell the stock. It closed at €5.09, down 43 cent. Anglo Irish also fared poorly, despite been relatively favoured by the Dresdner note. It close down €5.07, down 29 cent or 5.4 per cent on the day.

AIB and Irish Life & Permanent also recorded substantial losses, closing on €7.85 and €6.55 respectively for losses of 3.09 per cent and 3.68 per cent.

Overall financials were off by almost 5 per cent compared to a loss of just over 2 per cent for the Iseq as a whole, At their worst, financials were 7.5 per cent weaker on the day.

On the plus side, the good news was concentrated on Kerry where, traders said, one aggressive buyer tracking over a million shares this week had pushed the price up. The stock closed on €20.80, 30 cent stronger.

CRH was another to survive relatively unscathed, despite a week that has been punctuated by bad news for the sector, particularly in Britain. The shares gave up 11 cent to finish on €18.64.

Independent News & Media also slipped back, giving up 5.5 cent in reasonably light volume to close on €1.405.