Renewed negative reaction to the proposed merger with Alliance & Leicester returned to haunt Bank of Ireland, with the shares falling sharply as the market took the view that Bank of Ireland may have a major struggle to persuade shareholders of the benefits of the plan. Bank of Ireland shares fell steadily throughout the day, closing down 23 cents on €17.17 (£13.52). This compares with the €20.30 (£15.99) high after news of the merger leaked and is a clear indication of the shift in sentiment away from the proposal.
By contrast, AIB benefited from its investment in Keppel Tat Lee Bank in Singapore, with the market taking the view that this is a low-risk and probably well-timed entry into Far East banking. The shares rose as high as €13.10 (£10.32) before some profit-taking brought the stock back to a close of €12.87 (£10.14), a rise of 22 cents on the day.
CRH has suffered in recent weeks from a combination of profit-taking and some negative broker comment, but rebounded strongly yesterday to end up 80 cents on €17.25 (£13.59).
Ryanair did not trade from its overnight €8.40 (£6.62) with speculation that the 25.4 million shares being sold by the Ryan family, Irish Air and Mr Michael O'Leary will be placed at €8 (£6.30) or around $41.40 for the Nasdaq-listed ADRs. Those ADRs were trading at $43 on Nasdaq last night.
Elsewhere, Glanbia recovered slightly after Tuesday's heavy losses and was 5 cents higher on €1.20 (95p). Heiton jumped 13 cents to €3 (£2.36), Kerry saw good demand and gained 20 cents to €11.95 (£9.41) while Smurfit remained firm, adding 2 cents to €2.42 (£1.91).
Esat, in spite of a suspicion that it may be preparing for a fundraising, was in strong demand on Nasdaq and was trading almost $4 at the Irish close, around $37 1/2.
