Share prices drifted lower in another anaemic day's trading on the Dublin market with little on the corporate front to stimulate trading. Markets all over the world seem to be going through a downbeat phase just now and how Dublin moves from here will probably depend on today's British inflation and the reaction to those figures.
Bank of Ireland saw some early selling with one million shares put through the market at £11.90 before recovering to close down 20p on the day on £12.10. Tomorrow's interim results are expected to show strong growth particularly on the retail side of the business, which will include for the first time full six month contributions from Bristol & West and New Ireland.
Profit forecasts vary from £290 million to £322 million, but Bank will also take in an exceptional gain of £153 million from the sale of its minority stake in Citizens Financial in the US.
The half-year results produced few surprises, although the comments about sterling did generate some comment. The shares were marginally firmer in both Dublin and NASDAQ, although some analysts voiced the fear that momentum investors in the US might begin selling.
Powerscreen jumped 23 1/2p to 148 /2p sterling in early trading in London on renewed bid speculation, but ended the day up just 5 1/2p on 130 1/2p sterling. Apart from any bid premium, company broker Goodbody believes the stock is undervalued and has put a sum-of-the-parts valuation of 180p on the shares.
DCC continued to improve after its well-received interim results and was 10p firmer on 500p while First Active continued to weaken from an overbought position at 355p and was 18p easier yesterday on 320p.
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