Quiet trading with only handful of deals and few price changes

IT was a predictably quiet day in Dublin, with London closed along with most major European markets and the US. There were only a handful of trades and few prices changes. The ISEQ index slipped slightly to close down 6.71 at 2,529.63. Among the leading stocks, only AIB traded, unchanged at 337p, while Bank of Ireland, CRH, Irish Life and Smurfit did not trade.

The only corporate activity of note was the annual general meeting of the Kerry Group, at which the planned reduction in the size of the co-op share holding in the group was discussed. Kerry chief executive Mr Denis Brosnan had no major news for shareholders on the issue, but there was a small trade at 635p.

Adare was down 5p at 515p while Arnotts put on 5p to close at 405p. Other movers included McInerney, which was up 1/2p on 6.5p and Readymix, up 1p at 122p. Ryan Hotels inched ahead by 1p to 43p, while Waterford Wedgwood was off 1p at 752p.

Goodbody Stockbrokers has revised its forecast for Barlo and also for Grafton Group. It is forecasting earnings per share of 3.7p for the current year, compared to 3.5p previously. Goodbody is also predicting earnings of 5p per share in 1997/1998.

It is now forecasting earnings of 631/2p per share in 1996 for Grafton, up from 60.4p. Most of the growth is expected to come for the group's Irish operations and Goodbody has also revised next year's earnings up from 64.7p to 65.8p. There is, as yet, no sign of the revised forecasts for Smurfit that some commentators have prophesied.