Leading players' losses make for slow Iseq session

Market Report: The Dublin market slipped slightly yesterday, with most of the leading stocks giving up a little ground in a session that had little corporate news to guide it.

"Bank of Ireland, CRH, Anglo Irish, Ryanair, Eircom and Irish Life & Permanent all gave up a few cent," said one trader.

"No one was really badly hit, but when you stick all the small losses among the leaders together, it was enough to put a brake on the market."

AIB alone among the banks ended the day in positive territory, but even then it was only five cent ahead on what was a reasonably quiet session.

Bank of Ireland was 16 cents or 1.2 per cent weaker, while Irish Life & Permanent was off two cent on €13.65.

However, Anglo Irish took the biggest hit, at least in percentage terms. It lost 19 cent of 1.9 per cent at the close to finish on €9.77. Dealers said the closing level was somewhat unrepresentative as the bulk of the business in Anglo was done at €9.82.

The big winner on the day was fruit importer and distributor Fyffes. Dealers said the stock had been the subject of "aggressive buying interest" among investors following further bullish data on banana prices. The market also appears to have downplayed the risk to Fyffes from an EU Commission cartel inquiry that saw the group's head office raided last week.

Apart from the market minnow Waterford Wedgwood, Fyffes was the busiest stock of the day, with almost three million shares changing hands.

The price rose six cent or 2.6 per cent to €2.34, the level at which it was trading ahead of the cartel raid. Waterford Wedgwood had a good day, climbing 8.7 per cent to five cent.

The Independent News & Media annual general meeting produced nothing to move the market and the stock retreated a couple of cent to €2.60.

CRH was six cent off at €21.17, while Ryanair slipped 11 cent to €6.43 and Eircom closed on €1.84, down two cent.

Settlement Day: June 13th