Standard Life suggests that while the ISEQ has managed to make some good ground recently, it is unlikely to outperform other stock markets by year end. Investment Manager, Mr Pat Woods, says its cautious view is not based on any doubts about the sustainability of the rate of growth in the Irish economy but is based on the absence of buyers for Irish stocks.

"Natural buyers of the market are in short supply, whether they are foreign or domestic investors. Foreign investors have been tempted elsewhere during 1999."

At the same time he points out that the Irish market faced two further problems. Firstly concerns that the economic bubble is about to burst and more importantly, the impact of the arrival of the euro. Now that we are in a much larger currency area than previously, the argument goes that Irish pension funds should have considerably less of their assets invested in Irish equities.