Strong gains in New York and London allowed the Irish market recover some of the heavy losses of the past few days, although brokers said that there is still no great interest in Irish stocks from institutional investors with even the buzz around Telecom beginning to fade.
Telecom began well after Monday's sharp 20 cent fall and traded up as high as €4.73 (£3.73) before easing back in later trading to close on €4.65 (£3.66). Turnover levels are sharply lower now and in London there was little more than 4 million shares changing hands compared to the daily turnover levels of 30 million shares in the days after the Telecom IPO.
CRH led the recovery among the leaders and jumped 60 cents from its oversold, position to €18.60 (£14.65). The two big banks were also firmer with AIB up 25 cents to €12.95 (£10.20) while Bank of Ireland was 6 cents higher on €8.76 (£6.90). Irish Life & Permanent, however, remains marooned at €10.10 (£7.95) despite comments from Davy that the share is excellent value at these levels.
Smurfit hit a high of €2.52 (£1.98) in early trading before closing up 4 cents on €2.45 (£1.93) as Bear Stearns and Paine Webber turned enthusiastic towards the stock with "buy" recommendations. These recommendations, however, were ignored on Wall Street where Smurfit shares were marginally easier. Second-liners were mixed with Green up 20 cents to €5.80 (£4.57) after good results while Fyffes was another 2 cents weaker on €1.88 (£1.48). Independent recovered from recent weakness and gained 8 1/2 cents to €4.45 (£3.50) while Jurys lost 16 cents to €7.60 (£5.99).
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