Irish market stands aloof from main international advances

The international stock markets may have surged for a variety of reasons - an improved tone in the Far East in anticipation of the Japanese rescue package, the Chinese decision to maintain the level of the yuan and mild US inflation figures.

Nevertheless, the Irish market stood aloof from the improvement overseas, with the index still weighed down by the fall in the Elan share price.

However, there were some strong performances yesterday, notably by Waterford Wedgwood, which jumped 6p to 93p as investors responded positively to the Rosenthal majority stake and the rationalisation at Wedgwood. There was little change among the leaders, but most of the volume was concentrated on Bank of Ire- land. Bank closed up 3p on 1038p, while AIB eased 2p to 659p in thin trading.

CRH was 8p lower on 810p, while Smurfit was 2p weaker on 192p.

Scottish Provident has emerged as a recent big buyer of Clondalkin, picking up almost half a million shares last Thursday to bring its stake to 2.1 million shares or just over 5 per cent. Clondalkin eased 8p to 560p yesterday.

Anglo Irish Bank was 1p firmer on 125p despite a cut in ratings by Merrill Lynch from "accumulate" to "neutral", brokerspeak for "buy" to "hold". However, the Merrill view is in conflict with recent reviews of Anglo by other brokers.

Donegal Creameries rose 15p to 240p and is now almost 50 per cent above its flotation price, no doubt bringing joy to the 1,100 Donegal farmers who control the company. Fyffes, however, came off its recent highs and lost 5p to 105p.

Trading in Ewart suggests that Dunloe House will have to raise its somewhat stingy 67p sterling bid for the company. The shares were 5p higher in London on 79p sterling and dealt up 7 1/2p to 87 1/2p in Dublin. IWP, however, lost 17p to 295p for no apparent reason, takeover target ILP closed on 41p while Irish Life lost 13p to 360p.

Tullow - once again put in the frame as a takeover target - was unchanged in Dublin on 167p, but lost 3 1/2p to 150p sterling in London.