The Irish market seemed blithely indifferent to the latest heavy selling on international markets yesterday, but that is unlikely to be the case today with some hefty selling expected in anticipation of a half-point rise in interest rates when the Fed's policy-making committee meets on May 16th.
There was little change among most of the leaders, but Anglo Irish Bank put in a strong performance after bumper half-year results, hitting a high of A2.70 before drifting to close 13 cents higher on A2.65. Meanwhile, Abbey's 40-cent-per-share special dividend gave a boost to the house-building company, which closed 18 cents higher on A3.28, still a long way off the A6.03 all-time high of two years ago.
Price changes among the large-cap stocks were negligible, with AIB down 10 cents on A10.80 and Bank of Ireland up 6 cents on A7.56. CRH remains by far the best of the leaders and jumped 40 cents to A18.80, with ABN Amro thought to have made CRH its top pick among European building materials manufacturers. Eircom remained becalmed on A3.80 after earlier managing to touch its A3.90 flotation price.
Kerry, one of the better performers in recent weeks, slipped 25 cents to A13.65 and Waterford Wedgwood, also a good recent performer, was 3 cents easier on A1.07. Ryanair gained 15 cents to A9.00.
Needless to say, Nasdaq's weakness meant that Irish technology shares were a sea of red ink. Trintech dipped A2 on the Neuer Markt and was trading $1 1/4 lower at $25 in midday Nasdaq trading. Baltimore fell more than £3 to £66.55 sterling and was below $105, down more than $3, on Nasdaq at midday.
