CRH slips after recent strong rally

THE Irish market drifted lower yesterday, led by falls in CRH and Smurfit. The "mad cow" scare also hit sentiment a little as food group Kerry lost ground in London. Although dealers said the main impact was on the jokes doing the Avonmore is also exposed to the beef industry but dealers said neither should suffer too badly.

Smurfit lost a further 5p to 148p a share after news that US analysts including Merrill Lynch have downgraded paper stocks. CRH slid 3p to 554p on profit taking after a very strong rally recently.

The financial stocks were mixed with Bank of Ireland up 1p to 418p and AIB down 1p to 319p. Irish Life gained 3p to 254p after it announced a 22 per cent increase in profits to £89 million. Analysts had been forecasting profits of £74 to £77 million.

Kerry Group remained unchanged at 525p despite a fall in its London-quoted shares. Avonmore was also unchanged on 155p. Traders said only a small percentage of its profits were attributable to the beef industry and it shouldn't be hit too badly by a fall in beef prices.

Greencore added another 3p to 309p on good demand from international investors, traders said. Clondalkin put on 12p to close at 432p.

The Irish bond market had a quiet day and easily absorbed a £75 million tap announced by the NTMA. The 8 per cent bond due 2000 was sold at 102.90. It closed at 103.00 to yield 7.06 per cent from 7.09 the day before. The 10-year benchmark due 2006 closed at 100.15 to yield 7.81 per cent from 7.82 per cent on Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia report showed a decline in activity which had a small negative impact on US bond markets.

Lower than expected jobless claims which rose to 384,000 in the week ended March 16th, against forecasts of 393,000, hit sentiment slightly. "This confirms the idea that the US labour market is strengthening," one dealer said.

News that British inflation in February was higher than expected also failed to impact the market seriously. The data showed an annual rate of 2.7per cent, compared to expectations for 2.6 per cent.