The flow of half-year results continued in full spate yesterday, and although there were few surprises in the actual figures there was some real surprise at Independent's snap €104 million placing of new equity.

Why Independent should do a 10 per cent placing when its share price is at a near three-year low has not been made clear, and the company has made it clear that it did not come under pressure in relation to banking covenants to increase its equity.

But with the new stock on offer at less than 12 times forecast full-year earnings, there was no shortage of takers and the placing was oversubscribed. Independent's results were slightly better than forecast and the shares traded from the overnight €2.13 to the placing level of €2.02 and back up to a close of €2.04.

Far and away the best half-year results came from Glanbia and the share continued its recent strong run after analysts upgraded their full-year forecasts for the group.

From an overnight €1.25, Glanbia traded as high as €1.30 before closing on €1.28.

Irish Life and Kingspan results were broadly in line with forecasts, but Irish Life lost 7 cents to €13.30 while Kingspan was 5 cents firmer on €3.00.

Fyffes has benefited in recent weeks from firmer European banana prices and the share remained in demand, adding 5 cents to €1.37.

CRH remained weak after poorly-received results and lost another 34 cents to close at €17.51.

IAWS lost 20 cents to €8.65 while Smurfit drifted 1 cent to €2.44 as the company disclosed that director Mr Paddy Wright sold 300,000 shares last Monday at €2.45 each.