Dublin Report: In a day of little Irish corporate news, Eircom again dominated trading yesterday as investors continued to smart over the company's decision to pay €420 million for mobile phone company Meteor.
The price is seen by many investors as too high and as a result the company's stock continued the decline it started on Monday, losing a further 3 cent, to end the day at €1.70. Still, even the trading of 26 million Eircom shares, compared with the daily Dublin average of 3.9 million, failed to drag the Iseq in a negative direction. The Dublin index closed up marginally at 6,777.56.
Among the gainers was C&C, which rose 9 cent to end the day at €4.05. Dealers said the company is continuing to benefit from rumours of a good take-up of Magners, the group's cider, in the UK. IAWS ended the day at €11.50, 30 cent ahead of its closing price on Monday.
Traders said that while the outlook for the group's agribusiness is not as negative as initially thought, its cuisine business is also benefiting from increased demand for breads.
Grafton added 7 cent to close at €9.15, boosted by the expectation of a further two interest rate cuts before Christmas, traders said.
Elsewhere, FBD added 30 cent to end the day at €30, while Glanbia crept up 3 cent, to close at €2.93 on speculation the group is considering making an acquisition to expand its nutraceutical business.
Ryanair rose 5 cent to €6.67.
Irish Life & Permanent was the most positive mover among the financials, ending the day up 15 cent at €15. A trader said it was boosted by Italian analysts' comments that the company may be a takeover target.
Bank of Ireland also ended the day ahead, up 7 cent, at €13.82.
AIB dropped 8 cent to end the day at €18.08, while Anglo Irish fell 20 cent to close at €11.10. CRH, which last week traded at record highs, closed down 18 cents at €22.93.
Jurys slipped 5 cent to €15.75.
Settlement Day: July 29th
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