Mixed performance as overseas markets fail to give inspiration

Irish shares turned in a mixed performance as overseas markets failed to provide Dublin with much inspiration yesterday. European bourses generally eased off their morning highs after an indecisive start on Wall Street, while London was weaker for most of the day.

"It's been one of the quietest days that we've had for a while," one dealer said. "We're likely to take our lead from overseas markets in the next few days as there's nothing happening here at the moment."

Traders said British inflation data for January, due today, would be closely watched, while the Irish market will also take a keen interest in results from the UK banks which are due to start reporting this week.

Among the main financial stocks, AIB was the top performer, gaining 11p to 806p while Irish Permanent added 10p to 960. Irish Life was 2p higher at 507p but Bank of Ireland shed 1.75p to 1240p.

The trustees of the bank's staff pension fund announced they had sold 300,000 units of ordinary stock at a price of 1167p on February 3rd.

Dealers reported good demand for Kerry which dealt up 5p to 855p but other leading industrial stocks failed to make headway. CRH lost 4.5p to 878p while Smurfit was down 6p at 198p.

Golden Vale gained 3p to 110p ahead of results on Wednesday which are expected to show a strong recovery in profits to between £14 million and £15 million.

The move also follows news that Mr Dermot Desmond's investment company International Investment & Underwriting made a profit of over £3 million on its investment in the company.

IIU sold its entire 8 per cent shareholding last Friday after a strong run by the shares which have risen from 81p at the end of 1997.

Dealers said Ryanair performed strongly in the US, dealing up to a high of $29 by the time the Irish market closed. In Dublin, the share gained 30p to 410p despite reports that SIPTU plans to begin broadening the five-week old industrial dispute at the airline with ground-handling staff.

Tullow Oil, which last week announced the successful completion of operations on its N'Doyene-1 well in Senegal, firmed by 5p to 178p.

Among secondline stocks, Grafton continued to forge ahead, gaining 20p to an all-time high of 1520p.