The rejigging of the MSCI indices might mean an influx of $400 million (€457 million) into the Irish market from institutional tracker funds, but it had little impact on yesterday's trading although the market did close at another new high. Volumes were modest with only Smurfit and Bank of Ireland trading in excess of a million shares.
Given its size, Bank of Ireland is likely to get most of that additional tracker fund money but the shares added only five cents yesterday to €11.04. The other Irish addition to the MSCI is Green and it had a much better day, closing 28 cents higher on €7.43. Jurys, a surprising ejection from the MSCI, was five cents lower on €9.89.
After the disclosure that Grafton had bought another 5 per cent of the company from Setanta, Heiton jumped 28 cents to €3.50 as investors took a punt on a possible bid from Grafton. Grafton itself was a cent higher on €3.10.
Among the leaders, CRH - tipped as a possible bidder for the Lafarge cement business in Canada - traded as high as €21.95 before closing 17 cents higher on €21.49. CRH has been added to Goldman Sachs' recommended list as the investment bank shifts its focus back towards cyclical stocks. AIB was 23 cents higher on €13.55 while Eircom was unchanged on €1.14 as bid news is awaited. Irish Life gained 25 cents to €13.25 while Ryanair was 23 cents higher on €12.50 after trading as high as €12.65.
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