The Irish stock market started the day firmly, driven by a strong performance by the main banking shares, but it closed off the day's highs as profit-taking and a flagging Dow put a halt to Dublin's gallop.
Dealers said a weaker dollar, anxiety about the stand-off between Iraq and the United Nations and caution ahead of the release of US payrolls data today, dampened sentiment on Wall Street and also took their toll in European markets.
In Dublin, the ISEQ index of Irish shares closed 8.05 points higher at 4,537.15, having earlier hit a record high of 4,563.94. Banking shares provided the main impetus for the market's surge as the financial index gained 1 per cent on the day compared to a fall of 0.42 per cent in the general index.
"The London banks were strong from morning and the Irish banks followed through. Investors worldwide seem to be looking for opportunities in the financial sector," said one dealer, adding that people were positioning themselves to take advantage of consolidation, not just in the global market but also in Ireland. Aside from the financial shares, the market was relatively quiet, traders said, with investors again finding it hard to get hold of stock.
"It's difficult to find offers of stock. People don't seem willing to sell. What we really need is supply," a dealer noted.
The market got some fresh stock in the form of Athlone Extrusions which was well received on its market debut. It began trading at 91p and surged to a high of 120p before closing 22p higher at 113p.
Among the leading stocks, Bank of Ireland gained 40p to 1260p before slipping back to close at 1250p while AIB touched a high of 822p before closing at 810p, down 5p on the day. Irish Life gained 9p to 505p and Irish Permanent finished 20p higher at 950p.
Among industrial stocks, CRH slipped 10p to 880p and Smurfit shed 1p to 203p.
Dealers said Elan, which reported good results, ran into some profit-taking after performing strongly in recent days. The share price was also hit by the slowdown on Wall Street and dollar weakness and fell back 61p to 3861p.
Powerscreen suffered further in the wake of newspaper reports that news of problems at its Matbro engineering subsidiary was circulating in the industry a month before the Dungannon group raised more than £18 million in a share placing with Irish investors. The share price lost 36p to 224p or 190p sterling in a late sterling trade and dealers said investors were likely to treat it with caution ahead of the outcome of a KPMG investigation.
Meanwhile, traders said Ryanair was proving very resilient in the face of an ongoing labour dispute although the stock remained untraded on the day.
But Arcon, which also has to deal with industrial action at its Galmoy mine in Kilkenny, lost 2p in light trading to close at 30p.
