Better news on the political front from Japan, a resulting improvement by the yen and the Tokyo stock market and new highs in London and New York should have seen the Irish market improve this week, but that was not the case.
For the Irish market, it was a bit of a directionless week, rising a bit and then falling back as profit-takers couldn't resist the temptation to cash in some of their gains. There is still, however, a flood of institutional cash looking for comparatively secure investments and it will be a surprise if the ISEQ does not close the year close to 6,000.
The only factor preventing that figure being reached is a sell-off of international stock markets. As of now, there is no sign whatsoever of that happening, whatever misgivings some in the markets have about the sort of earnings multiples that stocks are trading at.
Anybody a bit concerned about Irish earnings multiples in the low and mid-20s, however, should be consoled by the sort of multiples that typically apply to Nasdaqquoted stocks, including the handful of Irish stocks on the market.
For example, Esat - without any earnings to its name - Ryanair, Elan, Icon, CBT and Iona are all trading at levels that many Irish investors might find inconceivable, but Nasdaq investors are prepared to put high multiples on companies and typically eschew the ultra-cautious approach of the Irish or British institutional investor.
Iona reports its second quarter next week and analysts have pencilled in earnings per share of $0.13 on sales on $19.4 million (£13.8 million), but it will be no surprise if those forecasts are exceeded especially given the way CBT outperformed the analysts last week with its second quarter numbers.
Iona shares have been volatile since they were first floated on Nasdaq in early 1997, trading up from its $18 initial public offering (IPO) price to $25 in July 1997, then down to a low under $111/2 last October before its remarkable surge of the past nine months where the shares peaked at $401/4 earlier this week before settling at $39. Elan - for many years dismissed as an investment by Irish interests - is now considered an essential element of any Irish portfolio, warranting the scale of research that went into Goodbody's 160-page tome on the company this week.
Times have certainly changed.
On the domestic market, highlights were few. But Ryanair's non-executive director and £50,000 a year consultant, Mr Ray MacSharry, picked an opportune moment to unload most his shares at 615p - an all-time high.
Mr Stephen Vernon got the best news of the week when Trafford Park's octogenarian chairman, Sir Neil Westbrook, was forced to concede defeat to Green's hostile bid, having failed to find a white knight.
