With settlements of deals this week not falling due until after the Christmas break, turnover in the Irish market has slowed to a trickle.
Dealers said that most institutional investors were reluctant to have any deals unsettled over the holiday break and that any end-of-year book-closing activity would probably now wait until the truncated trading sessions in the period between Christmas and New Year.
The only trading of any size was in Waterford Wedgwood where almost 2.5 million shares traded although the share only edged ahead a cent to €1.21. Otherwise it was pretty dull stuff and among the leaders, AIB was 14 cents higher on €12.70 while Bank of Ireland stood still on €9.50. After its big jump on Monday, Eircom dropped seven cents to €2.85.
News that it is in talks on a £50 million acquisition in the US supported IAWS which was three cents firmer on €7.18 while In- dependent was three cents firmer on €2.88. California investment house Capital has been active buyer of Independent in the past quarter and has picked up more than nine million shares since October to go from 7 per cent to 9.2 per cent.
Irish stocks on overseas markets were mixed despite the firmer early tone on Nasdaq ahead of the Fed announcement. But Baltimore dipped 17p to 365p sterling in London and was more than 10 per cent weaker in early Nasdaq trading. Iona continued to see-saw and was up more than $2 1/2 by midday on $69 7/8 while SmartForce rebounded from recent losses and was up almost 6 per cent in early trading around $29.
