Irish stock prices, particularly the banks, managed to recover some of Wednesday's losses but yesterday's trading on the Dublin market was tentative, with few willing to commit themselves to a market which may be entering an extremely volatile period.
The weakness on Wall Street after the market closed is not a positive factor. Any sustained weakness in New York will undoubtedly filter through to the Irish market.
What there was of yesterday's trading was concentrated on the banks where there were across-the-board gains. AIB picked by ABNAmro as one its top five European banking stocks for 1999 recovered 41 cents to close on #16.21 (£12.77), while Bank of Ireland was 23 cents better on #18.55 (£14.61). Other financials were also firmer, with Anglo Irish up 4 cents to #2.45 (£1.93), while Irish Permanent also gained 5 cents to #14.25 (£11.22). The one exception to the upward trend among the financials was First Active, which was 10 cents weaker on #4.60 (£3.62).
Among the industrials, there were few price changes of any great note, but telecoms junior ITG shot up 58 cents to #5.63 (£4.43) on the back of strong results and speculation on an imminent sizeable acquisition. Blue-chip industrial CRH drifted 5 cents lower to #13.95 (£10.99) despite clinching the Ibstock acquisition as Wienerberger sold its 29.9 per cent stake to CRH at its 70p sterling a share offer price for Ibstock.
Elsewhere, Kerry dealt actively but was unchanged on #12.20 (£9.61), while Smurfit regained 3 cents to close on #1.70 (£1.34). Irish Continental was unchanged on #11.50 (£9.06) as Salomon Smith Barney disclosed a 7.44 per cent stake in ICG.
