With the London market falling to a two-year low with no sign of a floor being reached and with technology shares still distinctly out of favour, Irish share prices moved lower. Once again, however, there was no concerted selling. Bank of Ireland, however, saw some hefty volumes and 3.7 million shares traded as it lost 11 cents to #10.20 despite a "buy" recommendation from HSBC which increased its price target for the bank from #11.30 to #12.50. AIB was unchanged on #11.75 while Irish Life and Permanent bucked the trend with a five cent gain to #12.95.
More telecoms weakness and a further fall by Vodafone saw Eircom trade as low as #2.30 before closing a cent lower on #2.32. More than two million Greencore shares traded as the share lost three cents to #2.98 while CRH dropped 50 cents to #20.40 although that fall involved less than 700,000 shares.
Even though its exposure to the foot-and-mouth crisis is minimal, Kerry fell again and was down 25 cents on #12.75 while Ryanair dropped 40 cents to #11.70. Marlborough fell another 20 cents after this week's profits warning and closed on #0.80 with one seller of a block of 250,000 shares.
Trintech finally bottomed out on the Neuer Markt and edged two cents higher to #2.41. But the immediate prospects of a recovery seem poor even at this level with ABN Amro's Jemma Houlihan giving the stock no more than a "hold" recommendation. The ABN analyst believes that Trintech's target of being positive in its earnings before interest depreciation and amortisation by the fourth quarter of this year is likely to be missed by at least two quarters.
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