Most international markets were hit by some profit-taking after the huge overnight gains on Wall Street, but the Irish market managed to move ahead nicely with demand for cyclical industrial stocks and some of the bigger financials.
The star of the day was Anglo Irish, whose €84 million private banking acquisition in Switzerland was warmly welcomed. With Anglo indicating it intends trebling profits at the Swiss operation over three years, the shares rose sharply and closed up 18 cents on a new high at €3.05. AIB was the best of the larger financials, closing 33 cents higher on €13.03, although Bank of Ireland drifted four cents lower to €9.68.
The move into cyclical stocks was evidenced by the sharp rise by CRH, which closed 56 cents higher on €17.67, while Smurfit gained another five cents to €2.10. Greencore gained 15 cents to €2.70 ahead of today's e.g.m. to approve the Hazlewood acquisition.
Surprisingly, Athlone lost 10 cents to €1.00 ahead of today's announcement of the Barlo takeover at €1.20 a share. Barlo eased one cent to €0.91. Fyffes jumped seven cents to €0.85 after announcing a major rationalisation of its British ripening operations.
Despite having its ejection from the FTSE-100 confirmed, Baltimore gained 24p to 414p sterling, while Parthus's latest Bluetooth development produced heavy demand for the shares, which soared 38p to 213-1/2p sterling. Parthus was also $3 higher in midday Nasdaq trading, while Iona was trading almost $4-1/4 higher at the same time at $67-3/4.
