Benign US inflation figures and British employment data gave London and New York markets a bit of a push yesterday, but Dublin remained immune to their buoyancy, with prices down across the board in thin trading.
The only volume of any size was in Ardagh, but this was down almost entirely to the share buy-back at €1.61, with the share closing at the buy-back price - up 9 cents on the day.
Among the leaders, Eircom edged ahead 3 cents to €3.03 as the market waited for some signal from Telia on when it plans to sell its 14 per cent stake. Bank stocks were lower, with AIB down 15 cents on €10.70, Bank of Ireland off 3 cents at €7.37 and Irish Life Ryanair down 30 cents on €8.10 ahead of results next week (pre-tax profits of around €84 million are expected). CRH lost 14 cents to €18.90, Greencore fell another 4 cents to €2.56 and Smurfit was 3 cents lower on €2.07. Adare tumbled 45 cents to €8.40 ahead of results in the next week or so and, hopefully, some clarification of the situation regarding the two rival management buyout groups.
There was little activity among technology shares, with Baltimore unchanged on £5.28 sterling and Parthus up 3p to £2.05 sterling in London. Smartforce, however, continued to fall and, by midday on Nasdaq, was down over $3 on $45 1/2. Iona's $24 million acquisition had little impact, with the share down over $1 on $51 3/4 by midday.
