MARKET REPORT/ Settlement Day: January 24th: With Wall Street closed for Martin Luther King Day, fund managers steered clear of the Irish market yesterday. Trading volumes were light - with only one stock, Ryanair, trading in excess of a million shares.
Confusion reigned about Ryanair's aircraft purchase intentions, with more cautious comments from its chief executive, Michael O'Leary, comparing dramatically with the comment on Reuters attributed to a Ryanair spokeswoman that an increase in the fleet of 75-100 planes in the next five years was "realistic". The possibility of a share issue continues to weigh on the shares and Ryanair lost another eight cents to €6.42 in turnover of 1.8 million shares.
Among the leaders, AIB drifted 10 cents to €12.65 despite being added to Morgan Stanley's list of core holdings, while Bank of Ireland added five cents to €10.70.
After its 14 per cent fall on the NYSE on Friday, Elan remained weak on the Dublin market and traded as low as €43.10 before ending 50 cents lower on €44.50. Investors will be closely watching the NYSE opening to see if the market adopts the view, advocated by Goldman Sachs and others, that last Friday's massive selling on the back of the Alzheimer's announcement was an over-reaction.
CRH took a hit and fell 50 cents to €18.60, Greencore continued its recent good run and added six cents to €3.26 while well-received results and directors' buying of the stock boosted Irish Continental, which gained 10 cents to €7.50.
McInerney was unchanged on €1.90 despite its €13 million acquisition in the UK, Waterford Wedgwood remained weak and lost four cents to €0.78, while Barlo gained one cent to €0.26 as director Brian Beausang disclosed he bought 300,000 shares on Friday at €0.25 each.
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