Take away the strong recovery by Eircom and it was another poor day for the Irish market, with the overnight sell-off in New York and a weak session in London failing to give any support. Where the Irish market will move from here will depend on overseas developments but there were signs late last night that Wall Street was making a recovery.
Domestic institutions have clearly decided that Eircom shares touched bottom last week and became cheap. The fact that most institutions are underweight in the shares (good when the price is falling but bad when prices are rising) means they are now natural buyers of the stock. However, yesterday's 21-cent gain to €4.01 (£3.16) is unlikely to be followed by similar-sized gains. "It'll be slow going upwards," said one dealer.
Otherwise, it was weaker across the board with AIB down 11 cents on €10.94 (£8.62), Bank of Ireland down 18 cents on €8.15 1/2 (£6.42) and out-of-favour CRH two cents lower on to €19.03 (£14.99).
Take-over speculation did not generate any trade in Boxmore in Dublin, but in London the shares traded as high as 142p sterling before a denial of any take-over approaches by Boxmore managing director Mark Ennis knocked the shares back to a close of 133 1/2p sterling, up 6p on the day. Mr Ennis denied any take-over talks. Media reports had speculated on a bid at 170p sterling, but the reaction in London yesterday was sceptical.
Dunloe Ewart was unchanged on 34 cents (27p) after Mr Phil Monahan disclosed that he had divided the bulk of his personal holding in the property group - 1.95 million shares - equally between his children. Mr Monahan, however, remains a major shareholder in Monarch Properties which retains a 6.7 per cent stake in Dunloe Ewart.
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