After a wobbly start, this year's newcomers have settled down nicely on the Irish stock market, finishing the year on a solid note.

Neither Eircom nor C&C could be said to have got off to a flying start when they made their market debuts earlier this year.

Returning to the stock market in March after a two-year hiatus spent under venture capital control, the telecoms group immediately sank below its issue price of €1.55 and stayed firmly below it until early October.

Meanwhile, drink and snacks group C&C succeeded in becoming a public company at its third attempt in May - but only just. To get the issue away in the face of a weak market and investor scepticism about the group's prospects, its advisers were forced to price the shares at €2.26, the very bottom of the flotation price range.

But things have looked up for both companies in the intervening months. In early October Eircom shares finally pushed through the €1.55 level before going on to hit a high of €1.70 at the end of November.

"The shares are up by 10 per cent and on top of that you have the dividend. A 17 per cent return is not bad from a stock that's supposed to be a boring utility," one analyst noted earlier this month.

C&C has also settled into life as a plc, building up a blue-chip institutional investor base as the shares have advanced steadily, notching up a gain of around 30 per cent. Helping to attract investors to both stocks is the strong dividend yield attaching to them with C&C's attractive 5 per cent yield surpassed by Eircom's even juicier yield of more than 7 per cent.

But despite the solid advances recorded by both stocks, and the respectable trading volumes they now enjoy, both face considerable challenges in their basic businesses.

Eircom may dominate the Irish telecoms fixed-line market but call volumes and pricing remain under pressure from wireless substitution and competitive threats while it could be some time before the company succeeds in getting back into a growth area like the mobile phone market.

For its part, C&C has had to contend with the impact of the smoking ban, introduced last March, a mixed tourist season and unseasonal summer weather

Much of the optimism surrounding the company centres on its export cider brand, Magners, which has performed strongly in Northern Ireland and Scotland and will be rolled out in England next year.

C&C shares have also to contend with a stock overhang as the company's venture capital owners, BC Partners, have held on to a 34 per cent stake even after the lock-up period expired in November.

But notwithstanding the challenges, both shares are set to finish the year in good shape and as high yielding stocks in defensive sectors, should continue to command decent investor support in the foreseeable future.