It's all very well to standardise opening days on European stock markets, but one would have to wonder why most Irish brokers bothered to open yesterday. Turnover in most shares could be measured in tens of thousands and one must assume that brokers had skeleton staffs on their trading desks. Certainly, commission income yesterday would have been negligible.
The Irish market lost just over 1 per cent of its value yesterday, but further losses may be in the offing today, given that most major international markets were down more than 2 per cent. AIB was the only stock to trade in excess of one million shares but drifted 10 cents lower on €10.90, while Bank of Ireland gained 30 cents to €49.95.
Among industrial stocks, index heavyweight Elan is still showing signs of weakness, despite its generally well-received third-quarter results, and the stock fell €2.32 in Dublin. In New York, where the vast bulk of trading in Elan takes place, the shares were trading 55 cents lower on $46.95 as the Irish market closed.
CRH was 26 cents higher on €17.51 while Independent was 6 cents lower on €41.75 - albeit in tiny volume. Investors will be keenly watching events in the antipodes where Independent is attempting to back its wholly-owned Wilson & Horton operation in New Zealand into its 44 per cent-owned Australian associate APN.
Ryanair lost 60 cents to €10.05 while Waterford Wedgwood drifted a cent to €0.67 in turnover of just over half a million shares.
Irish technology firms were mixed on international markets with Iona down almost 8 per cent in early Nasdaq trading on $12.
Smartforce and Riverdeep, however, were both marginally firmer.
