THIS WEEK IN THE MARKETS

INDUSTRIAL holding companies have had a pretty rough time on the markets in the past couple of years.

Institutions have turned against the unfashionable broad based outfits mainly because they would prefer to see a more focused and concentrated approach by them.

The tide may finally have turned in these companies' favour, mostly because the Irish companies in the sector DCC, Fitzwilton and James Crean are Focusing more on specific sectors and getting rid of companies that are not seen as core investments.

Most, however, still have a way to go before they fully regain the confidence of the market.

For DCC, even solid earnings growth since it was floated on the market is only now beginning to bear fruit, but the share is still trading below its 1994 flotation price.

Fitzwilton has fared even worse in recent years, but Kevin McGoran took pride in telling shareholders yesterday about the 20 per cent growth in the share price to 56p since the results.

The fact is, however, that Fitzwilton was trading at 120p six years ago and has become a virtual pariah in the Dublin investment community. Still, at least the shares are finally going in the right direction, driven by the strength of the recovery at Waterford Wedgwood and the steady growth at Wellworth.

James Crean, which once enjoyed an enthusiastic institutional fan club, has also suffered in the wake of the IAS aircraft leasing debacle and some other investments of doubtful quality. But as with DCC and Fitzwilton Crean is beginning to enjoy a minor renaissance. If Ray McLoughlin can off load Inishtech quickly and at a good price, that renaissance will no doubt become more pronounced.

Overall, it was a pretty uneventful week on the markets, although there was good steady demand for the major industrials, CRH, Smurfit, Waterford Wedgwood and Kerry.

With Wall Street well up as the Irish market closed last night, the industrials are likely to remain in demand.

For the main diary based plcs, Waterford, Aronmore and Golden Vale, it may be a crucial week as decisions are taken on the milk price for April. Davy's John O'Reilly has already said that a cut in the milk price of 7p a gallon is warranted and investors will be watching closely to see how the dairy plcs respond.

If the processors are seen to be propping up the milk price at the expense of margins and operating profits, it will be seen as a serious negative for the sector, with milk suppliers enjoying favourable treatment at the expense of investors.

For Independent, virtually every overseas investment has turned up trumps, but the weakness of the South African rand may soon lead to some down gradings of Independent earnings, as the company loses out when rand earnings are converted to Irish currency.

The rand has fallen 17 per cent since the beginning of the year, and the latest political instability is unlikely to improve things. Any downgrading, however, is likely to be relatively modest.