With profit-taking and fears of over-valuations dragging international stock markets lower, the Dublin market fell by almost two per cent. All of the leaders, with the inevitable exception of Telecom, were well down on the day. New York's weak overnight performance does not augur well for any great recovery today but Telecom shares were well underpinned at their closing levels after being bid up strongly during the session.
Telecom rose to a high of €4.96 (£3.91) in early trading on a shortage of stock to meet the institutional demand, but drifted back in later trading to close up 16 cents on the day on €4.91 (£3.87). This puts the shares on a 26 per cent premium to the €3.90 (£3.07) flotation price and may persuade more private shareholders to sell into the institutional demand.
Otherwise it was a sea of red ink with AIB down 27 cents on €13.13 (£10.34), Bank of Ireland down 30 cents on €8.95 (£7.05) while CRH lost 12 cents to €19.20 (£15.12). Irish Life & Permanent was probably the most resilient of the large capitalisation stocks, drifting 8 cents to €10.45 (£8.23) while First Active bucked the trend, adding 10 cents to €3.60 (£2.84).
New York trading was mixed with Ryanair suffering from small-size profit-taking although the share price was over $3 lower at the close on $53. Telecom was trading between 75 cents and a dollar higher at just over $20 1/2 while Elan failed to benefit from a Bank of America securities "buy" recommendation and was trading marginally lower at $29 3/4.
