THE Irish market bounced back after some early bosses to close marginally ahead on the day, with the blizzard-delayed opening of Wall Street meaning that the afternoon session was less active than usual. Dealers described yesterday's volumes as "moderate" with the volume of overseas money that was a feature last week not in evidence.
Smurfit - boosted by renewed JS Corp strength on Wall Street - continued its recovery and dealt up 4p to 161p. Other industrials were firmer with CRH up 2p to 472p, DCC up 5p to 215p and IAWS up 4p to a new high of 132p. There was some unusually busy dealing in Kingspan which - from an overnight 195p finally returned to that figure.
Financials were less active with AIB unchanged on 354p. Bank of Ireland was 2p lower - the bank got a positive response from shareholders to its scrip dividend offer, with half of the 30,000-odd shareholders opting for new shares. This means the issue of 1.4 million new shares, while B of I has saved £6.4 million off its dividend bill. Irish Permanent moved 2p higher to a new high of 395p while Woodchester gained 3 1/2p to 176p, its best level since mid-1993.
Gilts were steady in thin trading with the snowbound US markets dampening activity on European markets. The main focus this week will be some important German economic data - including fourth quarter GDP, unemployment and inflation figures. The ongoing US budget problems will also be monitored closely.
