Market rises slightly as bonds follow Europe's firmer lead

THE Irish market rose slightly in light trading yesterday.

Among individual issues, Unidare remained flat at 175p after Dermot Desmond's investment company IIU announced that it had bought a further 500,000 Unidare shares, less than a week after buying 300,000 shares in the market.

Its stake in the engineering company now stands at 12.6 per cent. The price paid by IIU has not been disclosed but since its most recent profits warning, Unidare shares have been trading at 175p.

Waterford Foods rose 4p to 88p after it reported that its margins had been hit by a severe squeeze on its milk operations in Ireland and Britain. Profits to the end of June were down just over 4 per cent.

Ormonde Mining, the small Irish exploration mining company, has announced encouraging results" from its exploration programme in northern Tanzania. The licence area contains two former mines, Mrangi and Seka. The shares put on 2p to close at 13p.

The financial stocks remained well bid but there were few offers. Bank of Ireland rose 2p after it announced it was following AIB and Smurfit and listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The move will allow US funds to buy Bank of Ireland stock in New York, without having to go through Dublin or London.

AIB rose 1p to 356p while Irish Permanent remained flat at 415p.

Woodchester Investments put on to close at 185p, ahead of its interim results on Thursday.

Building materials group CRH rose 1p to 616p while paper and packaging firm Smurfit dropped 2 1/2p to 161 1/2.

The bond markets also had a quiet day, but gained some ground following a firmer tone across Europe.

Most of the gains were made in the morning after Friday's US employment data.

The 8 per cent bond due 2000 rose to 103.78 to yield 6.79 per cent from 6.84 per cent. The 8 per cent bond due 2006 rose to 102.85 to yield 7.44 per cent from 7.46 per cent.