THERE was no doubt about it, the debut of Ryanair on the "grey market" ahead of its formal listing on June 5th was the highlight of the day. Dealers reported enormous grey market dealing in Ryanair, with Irish institutions - heavily underweight in the stock - bidding up the share to phenomenal level.
From the flotation price of 195p, Ryanair immediately dealt up to 250p and then moved progressively higher until it closed in after hours trading at 315p. This trading is not reflected in turnover figures as these dealings are treated as "conditional" by the stock exchange.
Nor will the trading be reflected in the ISEQ Index until official trading begins. At yesterday's close, Ryanair accounted for almost 2 per cent of the value of the market.
Elsewhere, price movements were negligible and the financials moved slightly weaker with Bank of Ireland down 4p on 730p, while AIB was 1p easier on 513p. Irish Life, however, was 5p firmer on 350p, while Woodchester was unchanged on 290p as news of a buyer is awaited.
Among the industrials, the biggest jump was by Clondalkin which gained 17 1/2p to 640p. Crean was unchanged on 235p as news of asset sales is awaited by the market, while Green was 7p higher on 352p as Goodbody upped its net asset value for the property group by 122p to 317p. Heavy NASDAQ trading drove Elan up $1 1/2 to $41.
In the food sector, Avonmore was 4p higher on 255p, while the prospective marriage partner, Waterford Foods, eased 2p to 120p.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)