SHARE prices went sharply weaker in thin trading yesterday, but most of the losses were confined to industrial shares, with financial-shares being supported by only modest falls in bond prices.
One of the biggest fullers on the day was CRH, which fell an effective 3 1/2p to 625p although there was no serious volume of selling. The other big faller was Kerry, which was down 15p on 670p - Kerry is one of the most illiquid of the larger capitalisation stocks and had a strong run in recent weeks, up to an all-time high of 685p.
Although the US paper sector went better overnight, Smurfit drifted 2p lower to 169p. Merrill Lynch has sounded a cautionary note about the sector but has said that the linerboard sector will probably be the first to recover when the recovery eventually comes.
Avonmore went against the trend and gained 3p to 175p in a late deal while Greencore was unchanged on 350p. Ardagh lost 8p to 137p, Independent was 7 1/2p lower on 320p while Tullow - which reports interim results today was 4p lower on 96p in line with the previous day's trading in London.
There was little change in financials, with only marginal change in Irish bond yields, with Bank of Ireland down a penny on the sterling equivalent of 497p, AIB down 1/2p on 372 1/2p and Irish Life 2p weaker on 258p.
Bond prices were lower in line with international markets after the publication of US jobless figures which were lower than the markets had expected, rekindling interest rate fears in the US. More key US figures are being published today, including September retail sales and wholesale prices and these should give another pointer to the likely direction of US rates.
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