Irish shares were marginally lower in largely featureless trading as conflicting signals from overseas left the market without any strong sense of direction.
In London, the FTSE hit its highest close in seven weeks but the Dow faltered after Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan again signalled that the US central bank will have to raise interest rates to avert inflation.
In Dublin, dealers reported some buying interest in Bank of Ireland, which hit its lowest levels since 1997 late last week, as bargain hunters came in to drive the shares back up to €6.00. But a late deal dragged the share price back down again and it closed at €5.7673 against €5.77 on Friday.
AIB, which was trading ex-dividend, also slipped slightly to close six cents lower at €8.69 while Anglo Irish Bank lost seven cents to €2.20.
Among industrial shares, CRH clocked up 35 cents to finish at €18.35 while Ryanair also firmed, adding 26 cents to €8.91. Dealers reported good interest in Eircom as well, with plenty of buying interest above €4.80, although the share eventually closed 2.5 cents lower at €4.77 1/2.
Elan, which announced plans to enter the cancer drug market through its $575 million (€596 million) acquisition of US-based Liposome, lost ground in Dublin although the share price firmed in New York. On the Irish market, the shares closed at €41.25, down from €42.00, mainly in response to the dilutionary affect of the deal which is an all-stock transaction, dealers said.
It was a dull day for secondline shares although Ryan Hotels benefitted from takeover talk to add 8 1/2 cents to 87 cents. Housebuilding group Abbey was unchanged at €3.20 after announcing that it bought 78,945 of its own shares in the market last Friday at that price.
