BANK of Ireland continued to be the star turn on an otherwise dull Irish market yesterday, although the market closed reasonably well, bid against the background of modest gains on Wall Street.
After its 22p jump after Bristol & West shareholders voted in favour of the £600 million takeover by the Irish group, Bank of Ireland gained another 8p yesterday to close on a new high of 67p. AIB was 1p firmer on 462p, while other financials were mixed with Irish Life down 3p on 324p, Woodchester up 10p on 285p and Irish Permanent unchanged on 603p.
The first quarter results from JS Corp may have been worse than expected, but Smurfit lost only 1p to 158p, while JS Corp itself eased just $1/8 to $13 3/8. CRH was 3p firmer on 648p, while Fyffes traded down to 95p after its profits warning before recovering to close unchanged on 97p.
Among the foods, Waterford Foods was at 97p and moved even further away from the 118p that the Avonmore offer has valued the shares.
DCC gained 4p to 320p, Independent was 10p higher on 345p, while Adare gained 3p to 663p.
Gilt prices were firmer with the best gains at the longer end of the yield curve. The market benefited from the positive overnight performance on US markets where treasury bond futures gained nearly a half-point as a rise in jobless claims suggested a slowdown in employment growth.
The hugely enthusiastic reaction to last Tuesday's auction by the NTMA was another positive factor for the market.
