The pattern remained unchanged on the Irish market yesterday, with strong demand driving the financial shares strongly ahead, while the industrials were the usual mixed bag. Irish stocks on Nasdaq were again generally firmer and Esat pushed ahead to yet another high.
After the hiccup at the end of the first quarter, financial shares have staged a strong recovery and all in the sector closed well ahead yesterday. AIB gained 17p to £10.80, Bank of Ireland was 20p higher on £15.50 while among the smaller financials, Anglo Irish was 3p higher on 201p, Irish Life gained 7p to 680p while Irish Permanent was 5p higher on 905p.
Among the industrials, CRH remained firmly bid and was 13p higher on £10.58 although Independent drifted 7p lower on 360p as nervousness over Pacific Rim exposure continued to weigh on the stock.
Heiton was also stronger after the recent big sale at 195p and dealt up 20p to 235p although Readymix lost 10p to 145p.
Waterford Wedgwood rose 4p on the session to 103p while James Crean slipped 5p to 150p.
Ovoca was unchanged on 24p after disclosing that it had raised £435,000 after placing 200,000 shares at 213/4p.
Dragon dropped 5p in London to 37p after it emerged that two Indonesian banks had taken security over 37.4 per cent of the shares owned by chairman, Mr Arafin Panigoro. Banks owning the shares will not make it any easier for Dragon to find a buyer for the Panigoro shares.
