Bank of Ireland failed to bottom out of its downward track yesterday following the dissipation of any euphoria over its merger discussions with Alliance & Leicester (A&L). Bank of Ireland was back 15 cents to €18.00 (£14.18) although it did achieve an intra-day high of €18.20 (£14.33) as investors awaited further details of the proposed deal. A&L, meanwhile was back a more marginal 2.5p sterling to 915.5p sterling (€14.00).
AIB had greater volume trading yesterday but was also back, closing at 849p sterling (€12.98), and setting the tone for the ISEQ which followed European indices and eased back a slight 0.2 per cent on the day.
The other financials fared better with Hibernian holding its price of €7.80 (£6.14), Irish Life & Permanent gaining 5 cents, closing at €12.40 (£9.77), and Anglo Irish gaining 2 cents to close at €2.62 (£2.06). First Active was back 15 cents to €3.80 (£2.99).
The main industrial stocks made slight gains on the day. CRH was up 5 cents at €16.85 (£13.27) and Smurfit gained 2 cents, closing at €2.55 (£2.01). Clondalkin was unchanged at €7.00 (£5.51) but Powerscreen had an institutional deal which saw its price rise by 13.5 cents to €2.535 (£2.00).
Kingspan, whose board underlined the strong fundamentals of the group at yesterday's a.g.m., was up 3 cents to €2.70 (£2.13). Arnotts, which also had an a.g.m. yesterday, was 5 cents stronger at €7.65 (£6.02).
McInerney, which announced the expenditure of £7.6 million (€9.65 million) on land purchases this summer, saw no movment in its price but Green Property was back 5 cents to €5.55 (£4.37). On the New York Stock Exchange, Elan was up 1.25 to $53.75 (€51.49). But Ryanair, which is announcing full year results today was back 1.57 per cent to $47.125 (€45.15)