Strong gains by a bevy of Irish technology shares was the dominant feature of the markets, with little of any great consequence happening on the domestic market to stimulate investors. Turnover in Dublin remained pretty low with only some million-plus trading in Bank of Ireland and some large volume trading in Barlo of any consequence.
Trintech and Baltimore, however, bounded ahead for different reasons, with Trintech jumping €3 on the Neuer Market to €29.90 after announcing its first big acquisition and a decent set of quarterly results. Later on Nasdaq, Trintech was up over $2 1/2 by midday on $26 3/8.
Bulletin board speculation that Microsoft was set to bid £12 a share sent Baltimore spiralling upwards. Although the market was attaching little truth to the speculation, it still led to Baltimore jumping 60p in London to £7.65 sterling while the ADR's were up almost 15 per cent by midday on Nasdaq at $23 5/8. Iona continued its strong run and was trading almost $2 1/2 higher at $73 while Conduit reached a new high of €17.50 on the Neuer Markt after gaining 30 cents.
On the home market, Eircom's recent recovery from last week's €2.40 all-time low proved short-lived and the share fell nine cents to €2.45. Biggest trading of the day was in Barlo where more than three million shares dealt as the share edged a cent lower to €1.
Kerry gained 10 cents to a new high of €15 ahead of today's results while Smurfit - also ahead of results - was unchanged on €2.22.
