Market Report

There was little cheer for investors on the Irish Stock Exchange yesterday as the Dublin market mirrored the gloom elsewhere in Europe and the US. Prices hit a low in mid-afternoon before staging a limited fightback towards the end of the session, as bottom-fishers stepped in to pick up oversold stock.

Traders couldn't pin the sell-off on anything specific. "The trouble is a lack of positive news. There is no trigger on the upside," said one trader.

Volumes were good with the notable feature being relatively heavy trade from international sellers.

Irish Life & Permanent took a hit after warning of poor investment performance in the first half. The shares tumbled to €15 before recovering some ground to close down 19 cents at €15.25.

It was not alone, with financials notching up a cumulative loss of 2.65 per cent. AIB was down 6 per cent at one stage and closed off 53 cents, or 3.83 per cent, at €13.30.

Bank of Ireland was down 26 cents at €12.30, having earlier hovered around €12.

Jefferson Smurfit slipped again, shedding three cents to €3.11, as the continuing decline in the dollar eats into the value of the Smurfit Stone element of the Madison Dearborn bid for the group. Elsewhere among the industrials Waterford Wedgwood continued to suffer, shedding another three cents to 60 cents, hurt by the dollar weakness that is hitting the luxury goods sector in general.

On its return to the market following the O'Reilly-led restructuring of the company, Arcon traded up a cent to four cents.

In the US, Elan again bucked the downward trend, trading up 18 US cents on the NYSE by lunchtime. There was no respite for Trintech on Nasdaq, which tumbled a further 18 US cents to $1.25.