The Irish market suffered some sharp reverses as Wall Street failed to benefit from the latest cut in interest rates by the Fed. The quarter-point cut had been priced into the market and it will probably take a set of positive US economic figures to get stocks back on the upswing.
The shock profits warning from pharmaceutical giant Merck put the skids under pharmaceutical stocks but Elan managed to avoid the worst of the carnage, falling €1.55 to €45.95 in Dublin and down just 66 US cents on $40.89 by midday in New York.
Smurfit continued to attract heavy two-way trading and more than four million shares dealt as the stock hit a high of €2.55 before ending just two cents firmer on €2.47. Smurfit was one of the few gainers on the day. CRH lost 36 cents to €19.64 in turnover of almost 3.5 million shares while Independent News & Media, despite a buoyant trading statement, lost eight cents to €1.97.
Financial stocks were weak across the board with AIB down 38 cents on €12.14 while Bank of Ireland lost 24 cents to €9.90. IFG - seen by Merrion as a potential takeover candidate by a buyer keen on its independent financial advice operations in Britain - dropped 18 cents to €3.12.
Barlo continued to be the focus of sizeable trading after its poor first-half results and almost 2.3 million shares dealt as the stock remained mired at €0.21. Horizon managed to recover some of Tuesday's heavy losses and was 10 cents firmer on €0.60 while Datalex, just a cent easier on €0.35 in Dublin, fell 25 cents to $0.50 in early Nasdaq trading, albeit on small volumes.
