Steady increase for DCC on positive court ruling

For the week before Christmas it was busy in the Irish market yesterday, with strong trading in several stocks driven by significant news flow.

The outcome of the Fyffes-DCC court case found in DCC's favour, pushing shares in the industrial holding company up as much as 7.3 per cent.

In the largest case of its kind before the Irish courts, Justice Mary Laffoy ruled that DCC's chief executive Jim Flavin, who was also a director of Fyffes, didn't have price-sensitive information when he sold shares in Fyffes more than five years ago and that the sale was therefore not unlawful.

Shares in fruit maker Fyffes fell by as much as 12 cent, before recovering slightly to end the day down 4 cent at €2.29. About 5 million shares changed hands.

As many as 1.7 million DCC shares were traded. The stock closed up €1.10, or 6.6 per cent, at €17.70.

News that Ryanair is to start 18 new routes from Dublin to European cities next year sent the airline's share price up 2.3 per cent. Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said the airline will base five new planes in Dublin from April next year.

The shares closed up 18 cent, at €8.08, with almost 10 million changing hands between the London and Dublin markets.

Eircom was also in focus, with almost 15 million shares changing hands in Dublin alone. The stock jumped by 9 cent after the Swiss government issued a statement saying Swisscom, the telecoms group in which it has a majority stake, will only be able to acquire other companies that don't have public service mandates.

While this effectively rules out any bid for Eircom, dealers said the market had initially reacted positively to the statement because of ambiguity about the wording. The stock later fell, closing up 2 cent, at €1.98.

Elsewhere, demand was strong for the financials, with Allied Irish Bank adding 3 cent to close at €17.95, while Irish Life & Permanent rose 14 cent, to €16.38, and Anglo closed up 5 cent, at €12.22.