With the latest American economic indicators suggesting a slowdown in economic growth, the New York market, and particularly the Nasdaq, bounded ahead. Irish technology shares were among the main beneficiaries and even those who have suffered in recent weeks from poor sentiment made strong gains.
The recovery, however, has probably come too late to save Baltimore from being ejected from the FTSE-100, with the composition of the index due for review next week. Baltimore is still well short of the price needed to retain its prized position in the FTSE-100.
The share, however, jumped 57p to £5.12 sterling (€8.21) in London and was trading over $3 higher on Nasdaq by midday on $16 1/4 (€17.45). The star of the day, however, was Parthus which soared 33p to a new high of £1.93 1/2 sterling (€3.10) in London and also traded up over $3 to a new high of $28 (€30) on Nasdaq.
Other technology stocks to make strong gains included Smartforce up over $3 1/2 to $45 5/8 (€49) by midday on Nasdaq, Riverdeep up $1 1/4 to $19 3/4 (€21.21) and Iona, up more than $6 1/4 on $50 (€53.69) by the time the Dublin market closed.
In comparison, the domestic stock market was deadly dull with financial shares recovering some ground after the recent heavy losses while industrials were mixed. Among the financials, AIB was 32 cents higher on €10.22, while Bank of Ireland recovered 17 cents to €6.53. Anglo Irish, however, was seven cents lower on €2.33.
Smurfit continued its slump and was another five cents lower on €2.05. CRH was 15 cents higher on €18.75, while Eircom fell seven cents to €3.13. Greencore lost eight cents to €2.82.
