THE Irish market fell slightly yesterday in line with international markets, as investors sat on the ,sidelines waiting for a clear signal for the US.
The Dow Jones saw wide variations once again yesterday. At 0 stage it was down 55 points before rallying to only eight points down at the Irish close.
There was little international interest in the market and even the domestics put though little volume.
The banks fell back slightly on weaker bond markets and a downbeat banking sector in Britain, which is expecting NatWest to report a loss later this week.
Bank of Ireland lost 1p to 415p a share while AIB lost 3 1/2p to 320p.
Irish Permanent lost 2p to 390p while Anglo Irish lost 3p to 60p.
CRH fell back 9p to 574p and closed at 598p sterling. Traders said the British building materials sector fell back almost 1 per cent. "CRH is likely to track that sector fairly closely for the next while," one trader said.
Smurfit bucked the trend and gained 1p to 162p.
Among the second liners, IAWS fell back 3p to 167p.
The bond markets were also little changed in very thin trade. The market is looking forward to the Bundesbank meeting on Thursday when it is expected to cut rates.
Retail sales figures from Britain will also be important. The market is expecting a fairly strong figure. Analysts say that a weak figure could give the Chancellor room to cut a further quarter point off interest rates. That could, benefit Irish bonds.
Meanwhile, most activity was in the short end, reflecting concerns about recent rises in market rates.
The benchmark 10 year bond closed at 102.85p to yield 7.44 per cent from 7.45 per cent, while the 6.5 per cent five year bond remained flat at 97.85 yielding 6.89 per cent.
