ANOTHER good day on the equity market saw share prices close just short of the all time high of earlier this month and there seems to be every prospect of breaking into record territory next week. But, for a change, financials led the charge yesterday, with leading industrials, suffering from profit taking.
Financials were well bid, with Bank of Ireland up 5p to 465p and AIB 3 1/2p better on 333 1/2p. Irish Life went against the trend among the financials and lost 2p to 249p. Irish Permanent was 1p better on 381p while Woodchester gained 2p to 190p.
Among the industrials, profit taking brought CRH back from its all time high and the share closed down 5p on 387p. Smurfit was lp easier on 168p despite a good over night performance by paper stock in New York which saw JS Corp move 62 1/2 cents higher to $13 1/8.
Adare regained 5p to 520p after the recent profit taking and James Crean was up 3p on 240p. Fitzwilton continued to benefit from a positive reaction to its share placing and closed up 2p on 58p. Heiton, which traded heavily over the past week, was unchanged on 96p. Independent was well bid and closed up 15p on 540p while Jurys closed 5p higher on 250p.
Gilts lost momentum after a positive opening session. There was a reluctance to trade in size ahead of a plethora of economic statistics next week - including first quarter British GDP figures on Monday, first quarter American GDP figures on Thursday and Irish employment figures on Friday.
