GIVEN the early carnage in London and European markets and the opening slump on Wall Street the Irish market did well to confine its losses to less than 2 per cent yesterday. With Wall Street confining its losses in later trading, dealers believe there are good prospects of a recovery with "bottom-fishers" on the lookout for stock possibly pushing the market ahead.
The only volumes of consequence traded yesterday were in the two main banks and CRH, but share prices fell across the board with bid prices pulled back as stock came on offer. Of the leaders, Bank of Ireland suffered most and fell 12p to 506p, while AIB was off 8p on 382p.
CRH fell 1Op to 590p, Smurfit was 4p lower on 165p and some second-liners fell sharply although volumes in most were very thin. Tightly-held Kerry slumped 28p to 640p, while Irish Permanent lost 18p to 480p. Irish Life was 10p lower on 270p, Independent lost 12p to 303p and Greencore closed down 7p on 363p despite the positive reaction to its full-year results.
Gilt prices fell sharply for the second successive day as international bond markets took a dive after the Greenspan comments gave the markets a serious fright. Yields on Irish gilts rose and the yield on five-year gilts was up from 5.98 per cent to 6.12 per cent, yields on I0s rose from 6.59 per cent to 6.73 per cent while the yield on long-dated stock rise from 6.82 per cent to 6.97 per cent.
