Dublin report:Trading was understandably quiet on the Dublin exchange yesterday but the sentiment was positive and the Iseq index rose yet higher, in contrast to its New York and London counterparts.
"Everyone is at the races," said one trader. "Volumes are well down."
"The volumes are relatively light and there is just bibs and bobs of trading in the big names," said another.
That said, prices when trading did occur were mostly on the way up, as positive views about the mid-term prospects for Ireland Inc continued.
The financials reflected this positive view on the economy in general, with Anglo Irish Bank up 2.4 per cent to €15.82 and Bank of Ireland up 0.93 per cent to €17.41.
Technology company Datalex jumped 2.67 per cent, to €0.77.
CRH was up 2 per cent at one stage in the day, driven by the fact that today is the last day for dealing in the shares prior to the scheduled trading update on January 3rd. The company's shares finished the day up 1.6 per cent at €31.55.
C&C also had a reasonable day with one million shares trading, and the price ending the day up 0.5 per cent at €13.52.
DCC was another winner on the day, with the share price ending at €25.75, an increase of 0.98 per cent.
Independent News & Media also fared well, ending up 2.37 per cent on the day.
One of the few shares going in the wrong direction was Aer Lingus.
Passenger figures for November showed a load factor of 77.1 per cent, a drop of 3.1 per cent on November 2005. Capacity during the year had increased by 6.9 per cent. The market didn't like these figures and the share price dropped 1.82 per cent, to €2.70.
