STRONGER performance by the industrials balanced out weaker financial stocks, with the yield-sensitive financials failing to benefit from an improved tone on international bond markets.
The main item of interest on the gilt market was the announcement by the NTMA of an auction of £100 million of the five-year variable rate stock.
Among the industrials, CRH gained 2p to a new high of 532p and it is a sign of the strength of the stock that the recent sale of over 20 million shares held by Gartmore failed to dent the share price. Smurfit was also in better form and dealt up 4p to 154p.
The recent takeover flurry involving DCC/Flogas and Crean/Inishtech has focused more attention on second-liners, many of which are trading on hefty discounts to the leaders and present some attractive buying opportunities. DCC itself dealt up 5p to 232p, the same price at which Phillips & Drew Fund Managers (PDFM) sold 530,000 shares earlier this week. This represented about a third of PDFM's total holding in DCC. Crean was also firmer and closed up 4p to 225p.
Greencore eased 2p to 578p but the market was pleased with the £6.8 million acquisition of the Williams Group, which may add about £1 million to profits in the second year. The first-year contribution is likely to be negligible, given the likely restructuring cost at Williams's agri-trading division.
Financials were weaker and AIB lost 4p to the sterling equivalent of 333p, while Bank of Ireland was 4p lower on 438p. The banks saw some selling but, overall, there seems little reason to expect any serious weakening in the shares of the banks, bar some sudden collapse in bond prices. Independent gained 10p to 415p, ahead of results and Irish Life was 1p better on 247p.
