Settlement Day: April 25thMore heavy trading in Bank of Ireland - most of it on the London market - and also heavy trading in potential takeover target Gresham were the highlights of a solid day on the market.
Fears that Wednesday's big seller of Bank of Ireland might have more stock to unload seem to be unfounded and the shares regained 11 cents to €12.40 with 1.3 million shares in Dublin and another 5.5 million in London. Overall, the pressure came off banking shares with AIB jumping 47 cents to €14.17 while Anglo Irish gained 18 cents to €5.58.
Gresham saw heavy trading with 3.8 million shares - more than 4 per cent of the total - going through the market. The sellers seem to be institutional while the buyers are thought to be in the main hedge funds although there was vague speculation that BIAM, after selling 5.4 million shares to Euro Sea Hotels a couple of weeks ago at €1.05, was back in the market for Gresham yesterday at the lower level. Elsewhere in the hotel sector, Jurys continued its good run and gained 20 cents to €11.15.
CRH gained 12 cents to €19.75, while Ryanair gave up some of its recent gains and lost 17 cents to €6.41. Smurfit edged one cent ahead to €2.62 while Independent added three cents to €2.03. Thursday's heavy trading in Barlo was explained after Standard Life disclosed that it sold 1.65 million shares to reduce its stake to 5.7 million shares or 3.3 per cent of the total.
Standard was also a recent seller of McInerney and disclosed that it has cut its stake in the housebuilder by more than 300,000 shares from 7.5 per cent to 6.5 per cent. BIAM seems to have been a recent seller of Grafton with a disclosure that its stake in the group is now 12 per cent. Grafton's previous stake is thought to be in the order of 14-15 per cent.
