Sellers abound but buyers stay at home

Market Report:In keeping with the January blues, yesterday was "a real down, downbeat day" on the Irish stock market, which is to say that sellers abounded but buyers were staying at home.

The market began to sink early in the morning, following the London-listed banks and a plunge in the share price of Marks & Spencer, and failed to make any recovery later in the day. It ended the session down 3 per cent.

Some 13.5 million shares were sold by an Aer Lingus shareholder at a price of €2.10, and the stock closed at €2.06, down 1.9 per cent. Sticking with the airlines, Ryanair was under pressure amid fears that British consumers will spend less money in 2008 and a weakening of sterling against the euro. It fell 8 per cent yesterday to €3.60.

It was also a day to forget for Paddy Power, which fell 7.3 per cent to close down €1.55 at €19.45. Fellow bookmakers William Hill and Ladbrokes saw their share prices fall in the London market earlier this week. There were high volumes in many of the major stocks, with Anglo the hardest hit of the financial stocks, dropping 4.3 per cent to €9.82, a fall of 45 cent.

It was a poor day for IEX-listed homebuilder Abbey, which fell 6.6 per cent after a negative performance update from UK homebuilder Persimmon. McInerney was one of the day's few climbers, finishing up 1.3 per cent after a block of 9.5 million shares - representing 3.5 per cent of the company - traded in one deal.

There was also a large trade of 8.5 million shares changing hands in fruit group Fyffes, which has seen good buying interest of late as the group benefits from higher banana prices.

CRH sank 5.3 per cent but Iona Technologies was the biggest faller, dropping 24 per cent after it said it would lay off staff.