It was a flat day on the Irish market with little change among the leading industrial and financial stocks, but there were a couple of special situations to stimulate some interest.
The first was Kingspan where almost 5.2 million shares traded - over 3 per cent of the total equity - as the share gained 10 cents to €3.00. There was some speculation that former director Mr Brendan Murtagh may have been the seller given indications that he may be lining up to take Anglo-Irish property group Howard Holdings private. Mr Murtagh has increased his stake in Howard to 24.8 per cent.
Smurfit jumped four cents to €2.17 with some speculation in the market that it might be a bidder for Swedish group Assidoman's containerboard business. Assidoman said on Monday it is in discussions on the future of the corrugated business which analysts estimate is worth about €1 billion.
Eircom gained four cents to €3.28 as corporate news is awaited, Fyffes fell two cents to 77 cents in turnover of more than three million shares while James Crean hit a new low of 22 cents, a fall of three cents on the day. Among the leaders AIB was two cents higher on €13.10, Bank of Ireland was seven cents easier on €9.10 despite post-results upgrades, while CRH was one cent firmer on €17.11.
Datalex is finding its early days on the markets difficult but the shares regained 35 cents yesterday to €6.60 - still trading well off the €6.84 flotation price. Riverdeep was 40 cents firmer on €4.70.
