DESPITE the plethora of headlines from heart operations to elections, it was another quiet week on the Irish markets. The Dow powered ahead, now comfortably over the 6,000 level which many believed would not be achieved on this side of a crash. The British and Irish equity markets, however, failed to make the same headway.
Much of the focus remained on the exchange rate, where sterling strength is still the dominant story. Britain is still beset by interest rate uncertainties. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Kenneth Clarke's quarter-point rise last week is still at the top of traders' minds and even one of the biggest merger announcements ever - between BT and MCI - failed to ignite a spark.
The story really was one of weak credit data both here and in the US. Both turned in weaker than expected, the US reported a drop of $2.66 billion (£1.65 billion) as opposed to a rise of $5 million the month before.
A strong performance in international bond markets and successful auctions in the US supported the financials including Irish Life, which was at the centre of attention for most the week, while AIB and Bank of Ireland also enjoyed good interest. A late £4 million deal for AIB yesterday brought its price up to £4.
It was a bad week for Belfast engineering group Mackie International. The company issued a warning that difficulties in its textile machinery business would result in a reduction in profits.
Tullow is also going through a rough patch and takeover talk is likely to resume. It has fallen to under 80p from a high of 122p only a few weeks ago. Investors have been taking fright at the political situation in Pakistan, where Tullow has some of its most valuable assets.
Meanwhile, Mr Dermot Desmond's International Investment and Underwriting (IIU) has continued building up its exposure to troubled companies. It continued its stakebuilding in the ailing engineering group Unidare. He now controls just over 13 per cent of the company's shares.
Exploration stocks failed to make much headway, despite announcements on acquisitions and a placing. Navan and Celtic were unaffected by acquisition announcements. Navan paid £5.4 million for a Spanish mine which is being sold off by the government under a privatisation programme, while Celtic increased its stake in the Russian Nazhdaninsakoye gold project.
Silvermines disclosed it only had a 27 per cent response rate from shareholders to its open offer. The outstanding 12.3 million shares were placed by Riada and Greig Middleton. This level of overhang means the shares are unlikely to much headway, despite recent positive broker comment.
The board of Lyons Irish Holdings reiterated its opposition to Unilever's offer to buy out the minority shareholders in the company and said it would oppose any effort to cancel Lyons's stock market listing if minority shareholders reject the Unilever offer.
Traders are now looking forward to British retail price figures for October and producer prices on Monday. In the US the FOMC meeting on Wednesday will provide a focus.