It was a good day for the domestic market with gains by Elan and some of the bigger financial stocks boosting the index. But it was an altogether different story for some of the Irish technology stocks listed on overseas market with the latest bombshell, this time from Nortel, resulting in some heavy losses.
In heavy London trading, Baltimore plummeted to a 2-1/2-year low of 38-1/4p sterling before it staged a tentative recovery to close 3p lower on 44p. Baltimore's shares have now almost halved since it announced its cost-cutting programme a few weeks ago and there is little support for the share even at these levels. Parthus was another to fall sharply in heavy volumes and lost 10-1/2p to 74p sterling.
On the home market, some of the heaviest trading was in Bank of Ireland following the appointment of a new chief executive. But although almost 2.2 million shares changed hands, the share added just a cent to €10.77 with investors paying little attention to Australian media suggestions that Mr Michael Soden's appointment might be the precursor to a bid by National Australia Bank for Bank of Ireland.
In much lighter trading, AIB was 20 cents higher on €12.75 while Irish Life gained 30 cents to €14.00. Among the takeover-related stocks, there was chunky trading in Eircom which closed a cent lower on €1.26 - just below the cash offer from Valentia. Golden Vale gained a cent to €1.47 while Kerry lost nine cents to €13.39, reducing the value of its paper offer to €1.339 for each Golden Vale share.
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