The ISEQ rose 0.4 per cent yesterday as major financial stocks and CRH clocked up small gains in line with the European counterparts.
Eircom, however, yet again failed to inspire despite further sectoral gains in Europe fuelled by the proposed merger between MCI WorldCom and Sprint in the US. Eircom, which rose to €4.19 on Tuesday was off nine cents yesterday at €4.06 (£3.20). Dealers said Eircom should have done better considering the gains made by Vodafone in Britain. One view is that the €4 level is becoming psychologically important for the stock and that if it can remain above that level, it will be bought on an upward trend.
CRH continued its rally yesterday, closing up a further 46 cents to €19.30 (£15.20) following Thursday's 32-cent gain. One dealer said a shortage of sellers yesterday had contributed to the rally.
Smurfit, however, made more marginal gains, and was two cents ahead on the day at €2.62 (£2.06). Greencore, meanwhile, was a cent back yesterday following Thursday's four-cent gain on the decision by the European Commission to cut its fines on Irish Sugar by €1 million (£790,000). It closed at €2.90 (£2.28) but reached an intra-day high of €2.94.
The banks made modest gains, despite fears on interest rate increases abating for the moment. Bank of Ireland continues to be seen as better value. It was up eight cents or 1 per cent yesterday to €8.15 (£6.42) while AIB notched up three cents or 0.24 per cent to €12.10 (£9.53).
