The Irish market was barely affected by the heavy losses on Wall Street - on the back of the highest oil prices for 10 years. But the Irish market tends to have something of a delayed reaction to overseas events and it will be no surprise if it suffers some selling today.
The Dunloe Ewart situation continues to bubble along and most of the 2.4 million shares traded yesterday are thought to have been picked up by Mr Liam Carroll, taking his stake towards 21 per cent. It seems that any stock coming onto the market at 48-50 cents is now being picked up by Mr Carroll, who has yet to make his intentions clear. Dunloe closed one cent higher on 50 cents.
There was also heavy trading in Fyffes which jumped nine cents to €1.05 in turnover of almost 3.6 million shares. After being hammered all the way down to 80 cents, Fyffes is now staging a mini-recovery with a view that it has been oversold.
CRH, however, is going in the opposite direction and more UK selling saw the stock fall to a 16-month low of €16.50 - down 55 cents on the day. Eircom eased two cents to €2.80 as news on the Eircell discussions with Vodafone are awaited.
Bank shares were mixed with Bank of Ireland up 18 cents on €8.18, AIB two cents easier on €11.80, while Anglo Irish jumped eight cents to €2.51. Ryanair added two cents to €9.17 as CSFB began coverage of the stock with a "buy" recommendation and a decidedly modest 12-month price target of €10.40.
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