Jurys Doyle provide main market news focus

Jurys Doyle and Irish Continental Group provided the main news stores on the Irish stock market yesterday.

Shares in the hotel group rose 13 cent to €18.52 after a group of non-executive directors, led by the Doyles, announced plans to table an offer for the company at a price of at least €18.90 per share.

However, volume traded in the stock was light with a little over 40,000 shares changing hands. Trading in Irish Continental Group was very thin, with less than 1,500 shares traded.

But the stock closed 15 cent higher at €9.90 despite signs that it was facing into another period of industrial unrest with SIPTU last night serving strike notice on the company after it sought nearly 550 redundancies on its Irish Sea routes.

Among the better performers yesterday was Independent News & Media, which added seven cent or nearly 3 per cent to €2.46 as management took to the road to meet international investors in the wake of the recent results.

Tullow Oil also had a good day, adding eight cent or 2.3 per cent in Dublin to €3.53.

But Grafton, which also issued interim figures last week, gave up six cent to €8.43. Eircom was active, with nearly 1.5 million shares trading, as the stock added three cent, or 1.6 per cent, to €1.89.

But drink and snacks group C&C lost 14 cent, or 2.8 per cent, to €4.86 as it gave up some of the ground gained on optimism about the Magners rollout last week. Ryanair dropped eight cent, or 1.2 per cent, to €6.80 as the airline made cautious noises about the outlook, saying third-quarter yields were expected to remain flat while yields would fall by 10 per cent in the fourth quarter.

There was little excitement elsewhere with banking stocks ending the day little changed. AIB edged up by one cent to €17.51, Bank of Ireland added seven cent to €12.82 while Anglo Irish Bank nudged up a cent to €10.95.