It was a case of the lull before the Telecom storm on the Dublin market yesterday with institutional investors content to sit on the sidelines until they find out how many Telecom shares they are going to get and how they are going to have to pay for them.

If the consensus view of a float price between €3.68-€3.75 (£2.90£2.95) proves to be correct, then a first day premium of 10 to 15 per cent is expected when conditional trading begins tomorrow. Whatever the price struck, brokers are preparing for what is expected a record level of trading over the next couple of weeks, especially from July 14th when the army of private investors get their Telecom share certificates and are free to sell.

Some stockbrokers, however, are looking after their existing clients and will deal on their behalf ahead of the July 14th formal listing, simply adjusting the settlement period accordingly. One broker said that deals done on Thursday will be settled on a T plus 10 basis on July 21st, T plus 9 from Friday all the way to the normal T plus 5 when unconditional dealings begin on July 14th.

On the market yesterday, prices were generally easier both big banks weaker. AIB lost 30 cents to €13.80 (£10.87), Bank of Ireland lost 20 cents easier to €17.80 (£14.02) although Irish Life & Permanent was 25 cents firmer on €11.45 (£8.99).

Industrials were mixed with CRH edging 5 cents firmer to €18.45 (£14.53) while Smurfit inched ahead 1 cent to €2.46 (£1.94). Crean was unchanged on €1.22 (£0.96) as chairman Ray McLoughlin disclosed that he has bought another 250,000 shares at €1.10 (£0.87) each.