Market hit hard by international weakness

Weak international markets impacted heavily on the Irish Stock Exchange yesterday which finished the day 94.56 points easier at 5,872.02.

Financial stocks were down, partly due to the general market trend and also on the back of a downgrading of British mortgage banks. AIB dropped 30 cents to €12.80 and Bank of Ireland slipped 25 cents to €8.85 in reasonable trading.

Also suffering were Anglo Irish Bank Corporation, back First Active, which gave up three cents to finish at €2.07. Eircom retreated 16 cents on the day to finish at €3.12, reflecting the market and concern about the lack of progress on corporate deals currently being negotiated.

CRH continued its slide, with a profit warning by British company Hanson still affecting its price. It ended the day 56 cents down at €16.55.

Frontline stocks which managed to buck the trend were Irish Life & Permanent, which jumped 12 cents to €12.39 and Smurfit, which finished up one cent at €2.18 on continuing speculation that it might be a bidder for Assidoman's containerboard business.

DCC also continued its upward trend on the back of good results posted some days ago, finishing the day up 18 cents at €11.40. Galen Holdings climbed 36 cents to €16.30.

The rest of the market had a generally quiet day with nothing exceptional in the volume of shares traded.

As the market closed, most Irish tech stocks were trading weaker on the Nasdaq which was 3.5 per cent down, reflecting the volatile nature of the international markets.

Iona was 3.58 per cent easier at $57.25, Baltimore had given up 9.94 per cent at $9.62-1/2 and Trintech was down 3.57 per cent at $8.43-3/4.