The pattern was the same on the Dublin market yesterday - no interest whatsoever in the traditional financial and industrial stocks while investors piled into the telecom and technology shares, especially those with Internet activities.
The two new "dot.com" stocks are Independent and Fyffes, and in the case of Fyffes demand was fuelled yesterday by a "buy" recommendation by a London tipsheet. Fyffes was driven as high as €3.90 in heavy trading before closing up 20 cents on the day at €3.50, a new high. The trend was the same for Independent, which was 30 cents higher on another high at €9.50 following the launch of its Unison Internet portal.
Takeover talk and a catch-up on last Friday's gain by the European telecoms sector saw heavy demand for Eircom, which hit a high of €4.55 before profit-taking brought it back to a close of €4.40, up 14 cents. All DCM-listed Rapid Technology had to do was repeat that it is in talks with IBM on a major contract and the shares went through the roof once again, going as high as €4.50 before closing 69 cents higher on €4.30. Horizon was another techie to receive attention, adding 20 cents to a €8.00 high.
In London, Baltimore was £3.25 higher on £74.30 and was trading $7 higher on NASDAQ on $120. Also on NASDAQ, Trinity Biotech continued its strong run, trading 62 cents higher at the Dublin close on $4.62. The share started 2000 at $1.75.
The leaders, however, were a flood of red ink. Bank of Ireland was down another 35 cents on €6.40, AIB was down 13 cents on €8.87. CRH lost 55 cents to €18.25 although Smurfit bucked the trend and was 2 cents higher on €2.72.
