The Dublin bourse closed down over half of 1 per cent in a downbeat end to the week's trading, with Wall Street's dull performance providing little stimulus to a market that is looking very tired.
The Fed's meeting on interest rates next week is unlikely to result in any change in US interest rates, so the hope is that Wall Street may take renewed heart and push ahead once again.
But the spectre of first-quarter results hangs over Wall Street and there are few investors intrepid enough to go into the market aggressively ahead of some of the key figures from the high-tech sector in particular, whatever Wall Street bull Mr Abby Cohen may say about the New York market pushing ahead to record levels in the next few months.
The only corporate news of any significance was the renewed stakebuilding in Unidare by Mr Dermot Desmond and Mr Pierce Casey, who moved from 18.5 per cent to 26.6 per cent after buying another 1.5 million shares at €2.40 (£1.89). The motives may be unclear, but when Mr Desmond and Mr Casey go into the market for Unidare shares, they clearly have no problem finding sellers.
The only price movements of any significance were AIB - down 30 cents to €16.00 (£12.60), Bank of Ireland - down 32 cents to €18.80 (£14.81) and CRH - up 20 cents to €15.90 (£12.52). Profit-taking hit Ardagh which was down 20 cents on €2.20 (£1.73) while First Active was also weaker, falling five cents to €4.10 (£3.23).
Irish Life got the thumbs up from Commerzbank, which slapped a "buy" tag on the shares. Recommendations to buy are now a bit irrelevant given that over 80 per cent of Irish Life shareholders have already committed themselves to the Irish Permanent offer and little stock is available. Irish Life closed at €8.75 (£6.89) down 15 cents while Irish Permanent remained unchanged at €14 (£11.03).
