Shares in Golden Vale raced ahead yesterday following the announcement by Kerry Group that it had made an offer for the company. The stock closed the day at #1.47, up 40 cents on initial enthusiasm for the deal. Kerry's stock was off a bit on the back of its offer, eventually ending the day 19 cents weaker at #13.51.

Overall, the Irish stock dropped more than 1 per cent yesterday to close at 6,234.33.

Financials put in a mediocre day with many trading down, in line with banks in the UK and the rest of Europe, which shed 2 per cent. AIB came under pressure and lost 20 cents to #12.37 in relatively light volumes of more than 630,000 shares. Bank of Ireland, with more than 2.9 million shares changing hands, also traded down, losing 11 cents to #10.97. Anglo Irish Bank lost 15 cents to #4.40. But Irish Life & Permanent bucked the trend, picking up 11 cents to close at #13.37.

With the news gone out of the stock, volumes in Eircom were down on previous days' trading. It eased back one cent to #1.27, with more than 2.6 million shares changing hands.

Despite reasonable volumes and good two-way trading, CRH was just one cent stronger at #20.86.

Pharmaceuticals group Elan also found itself under some pressure, despite a bullish statement saying it remained confident of achieving revenues of $2 billion in 2001. It lost #1.12 on the day to close at #66.68 on light volumes.

Tech and chip stocks suffered following Nokia's profit warning earlier in the day. Irish tech stocks on the Nasdaq were all trading down on the back this announcement. Trintech was trading down 7.39 per cent to $2.38, Baltimore was 2.11 per cent weaker at $1.39, Iona had dropped 3.9 per cent to #37, and Parthus was trading down 1.29 per cent to #11.50.