The Irish market lagged the strong performance on international markets, where the Dow, FTSE and European markets all notched up strong gains, with the ISEQ depressed by further weakness from Elan. Elan remains out of favour and failed to respond to an upbeat trading statement by the pharmaceutical group.
The only real gains were notched up by AIB, which dealt up 40 cents to €15.50 (£12.21) and CRH, which was 25 cents higher on €18.40 (£14.49). Bank of Ireland was five cents easier on €19.20 (£15.12) while Elan was over €2 lower on €55 (£43.32) although the shares had ticked up slightly on the NYSE after the comments on current trading.
Dunloe Ewart remained in strong demand after its well-received linkup with British Land and the shares were well-bid at €0.40 (32p), a gain of one cent on the day. Dunloe's firmness also benefited other property shares and Green jumped 15 cents to €6.05 (£4.76). Greencore relinquished some of its recent gains, losing seven cents to €3.80 (£2.99).
Irish Life & Permanent was unchanged on €14.20 (£11.18) after it was disclosed that the merger has now been accepted by 87 per cent of shareholders in the former Irish Life. Silvermines jumped nine cents to €0.58 (46p) and was 71/2p higher on 371/2p sterling (€0.55) in London after the confirmation that it had received an indicative bid.
Smurfit was nine cents firmer on €2.35 (£1.85) while Waterford Wedgwood was unchanged on €1.02 (80p). On Nasdaq, CBT's first quarter results did not excite and the shares were only marginally firmer.
