THE Dublin market ended higher as a raft of acquisitions boosted the market, however a sell off in the bond market led to profit taking in the late afternoon.
Kerry ended 9p up at 499p a share after it announced a £54 million acquisition of Ciprial, a specialist fruit ingredients company with operations in France and Italy.
Woodchester closed up 2p at 182p after Lookers, in which it holds a 29.1 per cent stake, confirmed it had acquired Northern Ireland's largest car dealership, Charles Hurst Group for £25.3 million sterling.
Fyffes put on 2p to 112p after it announced a £2, £3 million acquisition. "It's very well bid now. It should squeeze to 120p over a month or so according to the charts," a trader said.
However, traders said Wednesday's big US seller of Smurfit was still around. "He'll probably be there Friday too," one trader admitted. Smurfit gained a fraction to 148p.
CRH continued to see some activity but traded flat at 473p for the second day.
The leaders also saw good business generally, according to traders. AIB closed up 2p at 368p and Bank of Ireland was up 5p to 470p. Inishtech found a level at 860p following the news that its 71.2 per cent shareholder Crean intends to make a cash offer for the remaining shares. Inishtech last traded at 408p before the announcement. Crean put on 23p to close at 230p.
On Wednesday around 14 million shares were dealt in Waterford Wedgwood the shares rose lp to 60p yesterday.
The bond market had a turbulent day. The £100 million auction of the variable rate bond due 2000 went well and was covered 2.74 times. The average price was 100.54 where the market had expected a price around 100.45.
However, later in the afternoon Treasuries were sold off heavily and European bonds followed them quickly down.
Traders said unconfirmed rumours swept the market of selling by US hedge fund financier George Soros. That combined with news that credit rating agency Moody's had put some US debt on credit watch unnerved most participants, they added.
The 8 per cent bond due 2000 was yielding 6.30 per cent from 6.28 per cent the day before and the 8 per cent bond due 2006 was also down, yielding 7.14 per cent.
