More bad corporate news in the technology sector with poor figures from Hewlett-Packard, the continued uncertainty over the outcome of the US presidential election and a generally negative atmosphere throughout the markets conspired to leave the Irish market sharply lower although turnover in most instances was low.
The biggest trading was in Ryanair where more than 3.6 million shares traded as the stock came off its highs and fell 23 cents to €9.80. The biggest fall among the large capitalisation stocks was in CRH which was down 55 cents on €17.20 while Smurfit failed to benefit from the latest rationalisation in the US packaging sector - the expected link-up between Weyerhaeuser and Willamette - and was two cents lower on €2.03.
Financials were lower in small volumes with Bank of Ireland - ahead of interim results this week - 22 cents lower on €8.93. AIB was down six cents on €12.92 while Irish Life & Permanent - the sole bidder for TSB - was 15 cents easier on €12.10.
An absence of fresh corporate news meant that Eircom lost 10 cents to close at €3.20 in turnover of 1.3 million shares. Vodafone's results tomorrow will be noted with interest by Eircom shareholders who stand to receive more than a billion Vodafone shares if the bid for Eircell is accepted.
Datalex fell 54 cents to €6.30 as its IPO (initial public offering) lead manager, CSFB, disclosed after the market closed that part of the "greenshoe" over-allotment option had been exercised bringing the size of the share offering from 13.04 million to 13.67 million shares.
Irish technology stocks on the various markets in Dublin, London, Frankfurt and New York were a sea of red ink. The biggest losses on overseas were notched up by Baltimore and Parthus in London, Trintech in Frankfurt and by Iona and SmartForce on Nasdaq.
