THE absence of any trading in New York because of the Labour Day holiday put a dampener on European stock markets, and Dublin drifted lower in thin trading in line with the overall European trend.
The only real highlight was a 25p fall by Unidare to 170p, and the disclosure by Mr Dermot Desmond's IIU that it now holds almost 10 per cent of Unidare after buying 300,000 shares in the market last week before Unidare sounded its latest profits warning. The fall by Unidare was not unexpected as 170p was the best bid level for the shares after the profits warning.
CRH drifted 2p lower to 611p ahead of tomorrow's interim figures. Most attention, however, is focused on CRH's reported £180 million sterling move for the Tilcon building materials business in the US. Opinion is divided on whether an acquisition of this size would be accompanied by a rights issue by CRH, but certainly as regards its balance sheet, the company has no need to raise cash to fund something the size of Tilcon.
Otherwise it was pretty humdrum stuff with the leaders edging lower. Bank of Ireland lost 2p to 450p while AIB was down a penny at 346p. Smurfit slipped over from its overnight sterling price. Nothing of major significance is expected from Smurfit's interim figures today, with the market expecting pretty poor results.
Avonmore, trading ex dividend, was 3p lower on 147p, Greencore added almost 3 1/2p to 312p while Irish Life added a penny to close at 237p.
Tullow continued to trade busily in London where 2.3 million shares dealt and closed up 1 1/2p on a new high of 114 1/2p. In Dublin, the stock was unchanged on 109p.
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