The brighter performance in London and some of the continental European market failed to find its way through to Dublin where trading on the market was light in volume and, with the odd exception, prices were little changed.
Whether the current malaise is simply seasonal remains to be seen, but there was little indication of any great buying interest yesterday.
The one big change took place in London where Galen shares fell sharply for the second successive day, as investors responded negatively to the decision by Quintiles, one of Galen's major competitors, to expand its European clinical trials operations through the acquisition of a Boehringer plant in Scotland.
After falling 32p on Tuesday, Galen fell another 29p yesterday to 416p sterling and is now down 13 per cent in the space of two days.
Galen's earnings may be threatened by the arrival of a giant like Quintiles, but the shares are in altogether different category to the market's version of the living dead, Powerscreen, which languished at its 65p sterling low after the 25p fall on Wednesday. Even at this bombed-out level, Powerscreen shares are only for the bravest of "bottom-pickers".
Somebody who invested £1,000 in Powerscreen at the turn of the year now has shares worth just £100. No wonder, the Irish institutions which pumped £18 million into Powerscreen in the controversial December placing are feeling sore.
In Dublin, most of the leaders - with the exception of CRH - were little changed. CRH fell 8p to 997p while most of the leading financials and industrials moved by little more than a few pence.
Irish high-tech stocks on Nasdaq performed well despite the generally languid opening on Wall Street. Esat continued its volatile trading since announcing its secondary share offering and was $2 1/2 higher on $34 3/8 as the Irish market closed, well off the $29 3/4 low of earlier this week and back close to its trading level immediately preceding the announcement of the offering of six million shares.
Ryanair - which reports its maiden set of results next week - was $1 1/8 higher on $36 5/8 while Elan was $7/8 higher on $61 1/8.
