STRIP out the boardroom rumblings at Golden Vale and it was a week of the most extraordinary tedium on the Dublin equity market. Prices moved only fractionally and, with no sign of many stimulation coming from London or New York, it is difficult to see where the market will get the stimulus to push it through the ISEQ 2,600 barrier.
The recent events surrounding Golden Vale and its chief executive have led to renewed speculation that Golden Vale - which stood aloof from the co op merger that created Dairygold some years may be reviewing its thinking towards a link up with its Munster neighbours.
There seems little likelihood that a merger with Dairygold will happen in the short term. Too much remains to be ironed out at Charleville before any major corporate move can be considered - and not just the position of the former chief executive.
There are still concerns in the market over the Dutch cheese business, Vonk, as well as concern over the margins being earned by the dairy business in Northern Ireland.
Notwithstanding that, there has been huge turnover in Golden Vale shares with Goodbody Stockbrokers in the market regularly on behalf of overseas investors. Suggestions that some predator might be building a position may be misplaced it is more likely that the heavy buying from overseas represents a punt on an eventual merger with Dairygold. There are still no indications that Mr Dermot Desmond is back in the market for Golden Vale shares.
Otherwise, it was pretty dull stuff, with CRH encountering some profit taking after its recent good run and IWP finding demand from overseas investors after an excellent set of results and presentations to institutions. IWP may not operate in the sexiest of business - firelighters, air fresheners etc - but it is a solid, largely recession proof business that produces good returns. Still, with the shares at 510p, it is difficult to see much further progress.
Adare finally managed to regain some lost ground after its announcement about the lost Microsoft business at subsidiary Mount Salus Press. There is a belief in some quarters that Adare has something of a credibility problem with investors still flummoxed at how the company could pay £12 million for a business which loses 60 per cent of its sales' through a single contract in the space of a year.
The gilt market had a solid week, even if price movements may not have been substantial.
The NTMA got a nice response to, bits £100 million long gilt auction with the offer subscribed nearly four times at an average yield of 8.01 per cent. The agency is also thinking of introducing an index linked bond, a move that would be aimed at enticing some of the money that currently flows into equities.
The big news of the week for the market, however, was the bumper inflation figures for mid May. A 1.4 per cent inflation rate was very much at the lower end of forecasts and has led analysts to revise their average inflation forecasts for 1996 down towards 1.7 per cent.
Even the inflation hawks in the Central Bank are probably content with those figures.
