Speculation that Waterford Wedgwood may be preparing for an acquisition in Britain was one of the few talking points of a dull day in Dublin, which saw the move into cyclical stocks come to a halt at least for the present.
Waterford Wedgwood has had a fantastic run in the past couple of weeks and has risen from 70 cents (55p) to yesterday's high of €1 (€79p) before the shares closed up three cents on the day on €0.95 (75p). Potential targets for Waterford Wedgwood mentioned in the market included Royal Doulton (currently valued at around £65 million) and Denby (currently worth around £29 million). Neither of these would unduly tax Waterford Wedgwood's resources.
The two big industrial stocks that have benefitted from the recent bout of sector rotation, CRH and Smurfit, were marginally easier with C RH down 10 cents on €18.20 (£14.33) while Smurfit eased three cents to €2.40 (£1.89). Financials were also weaker with AIB down 10 cents on €15.00 (£11.81) although Bank of Ireland managed to edge 2 1/2 cents higher to €19.12 1/2 (£15.06).
Second-liners were mixed, with profit-taking dragging Ryanair back from what most in the market believe was on overbought position when it hit €9 (£7.09). Yesterday, the airline share dropped another 31 cents to €8.35 (£6.58), putting it on a more realistic rating.
Elan shares took another hammering on the NYSE after poorlyreceived results and were down over $6 at $59 as the Irish market closed. Esat, however, was in strong demand again and was trading almost $2 1/2 higher above $45 at the Irish close.
Some second-line stocks made good gains, with Greencore up 14 1/2 cents on €3.87 1/2 (£3.05) while Jurys jumped 65 cents to €9 (£7.09), albeit in small volumes. Irish Life & Permanent was up 18 cents on €14.28 (£11.25) although Golden Vale fell six cents in late trading to €1.14 (90p).
