Financial shares shook off the weakness in London and the weakness in technology shares after the poorly-received results from Oracle. All the major Irish financial shares were well ahead on the day, leading some brokers tentatively to suggest that the long-awaited recovery may be under way.
The biggest volumes were in Bank of Ireland which jumped 34 cents to €7.54 on the back of broker comment that the stock was undervalued. Bank of Ireland is now well off its 2000 low of €5.67 and within striking distance of the €7.91 high for the year.
Boosted by another bullish report - this one from investment group Fox Pitt Kelton - Irish Life & Permanent jumped 40 cents to a new 2000 high of €11.20. Fox Pitt had put a €12.00 target on the shares and has joined the chorus that Irish Life should sell its US and Irish businesses.
AIB was the underperformer of the sector on the day, adding five cents to €11.00, while Anglo Irish was three cents firmer on €2.46.
Industrials were generally weaker, with CRH down six cents on €17.98 while Eircom gave up recent gains with a seven-cent fall to €2.60. Smurfit gained five cents to €1.95 while Unidare was unchanged on €2.15 as Dillon Investments disclosed that it had bought 442,000 shares to take its stake from 10.1 to 12.4 per cent.
The Nasdaq weakness left most technology shares weaker. Baltimore was down 24p in London on £7.36 as the market waited for news of the placing of new shares and the shares allocated to some Content shareholders.
Trintech was down €2.21 on the Neuer Markt on €29.79 and was trading $2 lower on Nasdaq on $25 as Dublin closed. Parthus, Smartforce and Riverdeep were all trading lower in early Nasdaq trading, with Iona the only exception to the downward trend.
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