On the final day's trading before electronic trading becomes a reality next Tuesday, stock prices surged ahead on the back of the positive US payroll and earnings figures with technology shares leading the way.
But the army of Eircom shareholders had little to celebrate, as despite the a strong showing by telecom stocks on international markets, Eircom fell three cents to €3.10 after hitting an early low of €3.00. Even if markets continue their strong showing next week, dealers see little hope of any real improvement in Eircom shares with the KPN/Telia stakes continuing to overhang.
CRH was the best of the industrials and jumped €1 to €19.75 while even Smurfit managed to move ahead four cents to €2.09 after a dispiriting few weeks which has seen the share progressively weaken. Waterford Wedgwood was also in good form and dealt up three cents to €1.09 but Greencore remained out of sorts and lost four cents to €2.78. Bank stocks were generally firmer with AIB up 28 cents on €10.50, Bank of Ireland 20 cents firmer on €6.70 while Irish Life added three cents to €8.45.
But the biggest gains were notched up by Irish technology shares traded on international markets, with Parthus, Baltimore, Iona, and Trintech notching up strong gains.
Parthus has had a stunning early performance on the London market where the share closed yesterday on £2.13, up 191/2p and up well over 100 per cent on its 86p flotation price. Baltimore and Trintech continued to recover after heavy selling of the shares in the past few weeks.
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