Financials suffer as dealers look to Horizon

A dismal day for financial shares with most of the sector sharply lower on the day. Industrial stocks were little better with CRH taking a steep dive and it was only good gains by Eircom, Independent and especially newcomer Horizon that limited the index's losses. The new stock traded from €1.68 (£1.32) to close at €4.20 (£3.31).

With the Christmas wind-down already begun, there is little buying interest among institutional investors and both banks drifted lower in thin trading. AIB lost 251/2 cents to €12.75 (£10.04) while Bank of Ireland was 20 cents weaker on €8.15 (£6.42).

After moving towards a new high last week, CRH was hit by profittaking and plummeted 86 cents to €19.24 (£15.15) while Smurfit eased 2 cents lower to €2.85 (£2.24). Eircom, however, was boosted by more activity in the European telecom sector and went as high as €4.22 (£3.32) before closing 5 cents firmer on €4.17 (£3.28). Other firmer were Independent - up 30 cents to a new high of €6.00 (£4.73) and Kerry - up 8 cents to €11.93 (£9.40).

Some of the fizz went out of technology shares, but Trintech soared in early Neuer Markt trading to €75.80 before profit-takers brought the stock back to a a close of €55.00, a gain of €3.90. ON NASDAQ, Trintech jumped as high as $68 in early trade before falling back to trade unchanged on $56 as the Irish market closed.

Esat, at over $81, continued to trade well over the $72 bid from Newtel and a higher bid is seen as inevitable. The biggest Irish gainer on NASDAQ was Smartforce, which was trading over $3 1/4 higher at just under $30 at the Dublin close.