AIB bucks trend as financials rise and industrials fall

Demand for the major financials and weakness among the industrial shares continued to be the dominant feature of a generally dull day on the Dublin market, with little corporate news to drive the market and little stimulus coming from overseas.

The financial shares benefit from continued demand from overseas investors, with the benign bond market and domestic economy being the main reasons for the interest.

Bank of Ireland was the best of the financials and closed 18p higher on £14.68 after peaking earlier at £14.80. AIB, however, gained more than 3 1/2p to £10.35, while second-rank financials were generally firmer with Irish Life up 10p on 660p after hitting 677p in earlier trading while Irish Permanent was 5p firmer on 845p.

Industrials with an exposure to the Far Eastern and Pacific Rim economies were worst hit yesterday and Smurfit, Waterford Wedgwood and Independent were all unchanged or weaker. Smurfit edged 1/2p higher to 213p but there are ongoing concerns about the effect of the weak Asian economies on Smurfit's American interests.

Reports of the New Zealand economy heading into recession and the general malaise in the Far East also weighed on Independent, with its extensive media interests in the region. Despite buying in 250,000 shares at 400p, Independent shares continued to slip and fell a 370p low before rebounding to close down 10p on 385p. Expectations of lower sales in the Far East is the main factor behind Waterford Wedgwood's weakness and the shares fell to 91p before closing unchanged on 94p.