Dublin report:Irish equities pushed ahead again yesterday in what was a relatively mixed market as investors waited for the key interest rate decision in the US. Volumes too were mixed, with dealers reporting significant demand for a few stocks but lacklustre appetite overall.
As far as volumes were concerned, Anglo Irish Bank was in the spotlight with more than six million shares changing hands in Dublin alone. Dealers said there were two significantly large prints of almost two million shares each, which pushed the total volume up. The stock ended the day up 20 cent, or 1.3 per cent, at €15.40, continuing the generally good run it has had since it announced better-than-expected full-year results last week.
Activity in the other banks was muted, with Bank of Ireland rising seven cent, to €16.60 and AIB adding just one cent to close at €21.64. All eyes are on Irish Life & Permanent, which is due to release a trading update tomorrow. The stock, which tends not to move in tandem with the other Irish banks, ended the day up two cent at €20.02.
Elsewhere, newcomer Siteserv was again a star performer, with just shy of a million units changing hands. The stock jumped nearly 11 per cent, or 11 cent, to continue its recent strong run and end the day at €1.13.
CRH was also a gainer after telling the market it was making good progress in integrating Apac, the business acquired by its US subsidiary in August. It also said it had sold some of Apac's contracting and asphalt activities in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Texas and Virginia for about €215 million.
Dealers said this was no surprise but it was good to see a company doing what it said it was going to do. The shares closed up 52 cent, or 1.8 per cent, at €29.52.
Settlement day: December 15th
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)