GIVEN the scale of the slump on Wall Street on Friday evening, it was no surprise that Irish share prices headed south yesterday. But the lack of any serious follow through selling in the US provided some reassurance to investors although the market remains deeply worried about the raft of economic data due for release this week in the US.
As usual, financial stocks were lower although trading in most shares was negligible. AIB, Bank of Ireland, Irish Life and Irish Permanent all closed lower but were stable at their closing levels.
Some of the industrials, however, took a sharp hit with Smurfit down heavily ahead of what are expected to be dismal results this week from JS Corp. Smurfit closed down 8 1/4p on 153 3/4p, its lowest level for well over a year.
Another to take a dive was Fyffes, which closed down 6p on 100p after an a.g.m. statement that was taken as a profits warning although the company did not describe it as such. Downward revisions of Fyffes profits and earnings forecasts are now expected.
The Avonmore Waterford affair failed to ignite as far as the market was concerned, with Waterford's failure to move from its overnight 100p reflecting a view in the market that Avonmore's prospects for success are at best 50-50. Avonmore itself was unchanged on 235p, putting a prospective value of 117 1/2p on the Waterford shares.
