Heavy selling of Bank of Ireland shares drove the Irish market lower once again, with a growing view in the market that the proposed merger - at least on the basis revealed so far - may be substantially more beneficial to Allied & Leicester than Bank of Ireland. More and more British analysts have questioned the merger and that has fed through to selling of Bank of Ireland shares.
Bank of Ireland fell as low as €18.05 (£14.22) before recovering to close down 25 cents on the day on €18.15 (£14.29) - a long way off the €20.30 (£15.99) high last Monday after the merger talks were confirmed. Other financials also suffered from the shift in sentiment. AIB fell 20 cents to €13.30 (£10.47) although Irish Life & Permanent managed to buck the trend and added 10 cents to €12.35 (£9.73).
Otherwise the market was quiet with turnover suffering from the exodus of many reds-supporting fund managers to Barcelona. But CRH rebounded after recent selling and dealt up 25 cents to €16.80 (£13.23). Independent, however, fell 15 cents to €5.05 (£3.98) with nothing coming from the a.g.m. to boost the shares. Kerry, however, benefited from Mr Denis Brosnan's a.g.m. bullishness, rising 20 cents to €12.00 (£9.45) only to close unchanged at €11.80 (£9.29). Elsewhere, Waterford Wedgwood remained firm after its big American acquisition at €1.00 (£0.79), Grafton jumped 15 cents to €19.15 (£15.08), IWP gained 10 cents to €2.05 (£1.61) while Smurfit benefited from positive broker comment in New York and was up 9 cents on €2.53 (£1.99).
