A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
110 jobs cut in Waterford
110 temporary employees at the Bausch and Lomb plant in Waterford are to lose their jobs, the company has confirmed.
The first of the affected employees, who work as general operatives producing contact lenses, were informed of the move yesterday.
A spokesman for the company, which employees around 1,700 people on the IDA industrial estate in the Waterford, said none of the workers would have been with the company for more than a year. The spokesman said that Bausch & Lomb regularly hires temporary employees as and when the manufacturing need arises.
Dollar recovers after low
The dollar pulled back from a record low against the euro yesterday as a brutal sell-off in equity markets fuelled by worries over the financial sector boosted the US currency.
Adam Cole at RBC Capital Markets said the dollar was being driven higher as US investors liquidated assets in overseas markets in the face of increasing risk aversion.
However, he said there was no guarantee that the dollar's gains would last. "It's a flight into liquidity rather than quality," he said. "When you get such turbulence, funds liquidated in other asset markets find their way into the most liquid market - cash dollars. That does not mean they are going to stay there in the longer term."
The dollar, which fell to a low of $1.4503 against the euro after the Federal Reserve's decision on Wednesday to cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 4.5 per cent, rose 0.4 per cent to $1.4420 by midday in New York.
• A headline on a story in the business pages of yesterday's edition read "Dollar slips to record low despite Fed rate cut". This should have read "after Fed rate cut". The error occurred in the editing process.
Ormonde shares rise 2%
Dublin and London-listed Ormonde Mining said the first drilling and trenching on a new prospect at its Salamanca gold project in western Spain has returned very encouraging wide gold intersections in a sheeted vein system. The shares rose more than 2 per cent.
Solid royalties for Pan Andean
Pan Andean Resources said it expects to yield $50,000 (€34,559) a month in royalties when the High Island 52 platform in the Gulf of Mexico starts producing gas later this month. In a statement yesterday Pan Andean said its redirection is almost complete and that benefits should begin to flow in the short term.
Results boost Celtic group
Celtic Resources, the Irish-registered mining group that's the subject of a hostile takeover offer from Russian miner Severstal, yesterday released new exploration results from its Suzdal gold mine in Kazakhstan saying the findings back up earlier studies claiming the existence of high-grade mineralisation at the site. In a statement to the stock exchange, the company said the results were very encouraging.
Grafton acquires 250,000 shares
Building materials group Grafton said yesterday it had spent almost €1.9 million acquiring 250,000 of its own shares. The shares will be cancelled.
IN&M continues share buyback
Independent News & Media yesterday continued with its share buyback programme, acquiring 250,000 units at a cost of at least €620,000. The stock will be held on treasury, bringing the total held in that manner to 36.9 million units.
