Settlement Day: April 30th
A big jump in Elan shares in Dublin and on Nasdaq camouflaged an otherwise weak day on the Dublin market, with profit-taking dragging financial shares sharply lower although industrials managed to confine their losses to modest levels.
Elan accounts for over 9 per cent of the ISEQ Index and a rise of 230p in Dublin to £47.32 and by $2 1/2 on Nasdaq to $66 3/4 meant that the index closed only marginally lower, even though financial shares fell by almost 1.76 per cent on the day.
The sharp rise in Elan came on the back of excellent first-quarter figures and a positive report from Standard & Poor's on the pharmaceutical group's funding position for the $150 million acquisition of Carnrick. Analysts in Dublin raised their full-year forecasts for Elan as a result of the first-quarter figures and are expecting 1998 earnings per share of around $2.05, followed by $2.65 in 1999 and $3.30 in 2000 with revenues hitting $1 billion by 2001.
The financials suffered some hefty profit-taking and a recurring pat tern of sharp rises followed by profit-taking is likely to continue while the market continues to trade at record levels. Analysts believe, however, that the trend is generally upwards with an ISEQ level of 6,000 by the end of the year seen as a realistic target.
The two big banks suffered most, with AIB and Bank of Ireland both down 20p to 973p and £15.05 respectively. Irish Life was down 12p to 703p as 23 per cent associate, K&H, in Hungary reported a flat set of results, although an improved performance is expected in the current year. Irish Permanent lost 15p to 985p while bid speculation - which the annual meeting did little to alleviate - allowed Hibernian to buck the trend with a 5p gain to 855p.
Among the industrials, Smurfit drifted back 2 1/2p to 250p but is still well bid at that level on speculation of a merger between JS Corp and Stone Container.
On Wall Street, Smurfit ADRs were trading over $3/4 higher on $34 1/4 - partly catching up on the recent rise in Dublin - while JS Corp was $1/4 higher on $19 1/4.
CRH drifted 1p easier to £10.32, Independent was 10p easier on 435p while Kerry also came off its recent high and lost 5p to £11.20. If Tomkins is forced to sell the Spillers business it acquired from Kerry for £92 million, the sale will be seen as an even more astute move by Kerry as the Spillers business is unlikely to fetch anything like that sum if Tomkins is forced into a sale.
Dunloe was 3p higher on 37p after it disclosed plans to build another 500 apartments in Dublin after selling the entire Old Distillery 88-apartment complex within 48 hours of the launch. Iona continued to lose ground on Nasdaq while Esat was in strong demand on the same market and was trading up $1 1/2 on $34 as the Irish market closed. Back in Dublin, Marlborough lost 15p to close on 385p while Powerscreen dropped to a new low of 175p sterling.
