ALL Street's overnight recovery, following heavy falls earlier in the session, allowed the Irish market to move ahead a few points, in a day when most of the £30 million plus turnover was concentrated on the industrial shares. Prices were little changed, but dealers said there was good two way trade in the industrials.
Smurfit closed lp higher on 175p despite a minor fall by JS Corp on Wall Street. Trading in the stock was heavy and in London there was unusually high turnover, with almost 6.4 million shares trading although this overstates the real turnover as it includes both the buying and selling sides of the deals.
CRH was in good demand, dealing up 2p to 576p, and was well supported at that level. Waterford Wedgwood was also in demand, but slipped a penny to, 75p. Trading in the financials was lower in comparison, with Bank of Ireland unchanged on 450p although AIB moved 4p higher to 336p.
Elsewhere, Greencore drifted 3p lower to 305p some of the fizz seems to have gone out of the share. IAWS moved 1p higher to 154p, New Ireland was 15p higher on a new high of 700p, while Anglo Irish Bancorp was up higher on 63p after good results which have led to upward revision of profit and earnings forecasts.
Ivernia was unchanged on 89p. Mercury's arrival as a major investor in Ivernia was welcomed by the market, which now firmly believes that lvernia will mount a rights issue, or placing, later in the year to pay some of its share of the Lisheen development costs.
Gilts had an indifferent day and under performed both German and British markets. Most of the peripheral markets lost ground against German bonds which were stronger as a result of dollar weakness against the mark.
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