A LACK of movement overseas and an absence of corporate activity left the Irish market becalmed yesterday. The market eased slightly but was reasonably well bid at the closing. Few in the market expect any huge increase in activity in the next few weeks being confined to "special situation" stocks.
The only corporate news came from Adare, but the strong growth in profits for last year has been overshadowed by last week's shock announcement of the loss of a crucial contract by Adare's £12 million subsidiary, Mount Salus Press.
After last week's heavy losses, Adare regained lop to 450p but the group has still some way to go to repair the damage to investor confidence caused by last week's announcement.
Price movements among the leaders were inconsequential although the banking stocks were weaker, with AIB down 1p on 332p and Bank of Ireland 3p lower on 435p. CRH edged 1 1/2p to 651 1/2p while Smurfit was unchanged on 170p - supported by a bullish report from the company's London broker, UBS.
Second liners were mixed. Golden Vale continued to trade in size after last week's upheaval which saw the departure of chief executive Mr Jim O'Mahony. Turnover figures showed that another three million shares traded last Friday and the shares closed up another 1 1/2p to 71 1/2p - partly in the expectation that Golden Vale's current problems may accelerate the rationalisation of the sector.
A threatened strike had no impact on Greencore which closed - up 1p on 323p, Dana dealt up 1 5/8p to 9 1/8p while Jurys gained 8p to 270p. New Ireland jumped another 100p to another new high of £10 as Riada put a valuation of £11.60 per share on the insurance group. Seafield disclosed that the Natwest Smaller Companies Investment Trust bought another 250,000 shares to take its stake in Seafield to almost 10.1 per cent.
