MARKET REPORT: It was a busy day on the Dublin Stock Market with plenty of buyers and sellers of Irish stocks emerging although the ISEQ Index closed lower. By the end of the session, the Dublin market was down 5.68 to 4,301.43 largely driven by weakness in the two big banks.
Settlement Day: July 14th
Bank of Ireland issued a cautious trading statement at its annual general court yesterday, warning about the impact of weaker economic growth on its business. The shares drifted lower, shedding eight cents to end at 10.07. Dealers said there was a decent amount of sellers of the stock in the market on foot of the more cautious stance.
AIB lost 20 cents to end at 12.30 although trading volumes were fairly thin. Davy Stockbrokers yesterday adjusted its earnings model for the bank and slightly lowered its forecasts for M&T, the US bank in which AIB has a 22.5 per cent interest. AIB's share buy-back programme is expected to enhance earnings in 2004, according to the broker.
Anglo Irish Bank made progress adding three cents to €7.90, Irish Life & Permanent gained two cents to 9.72 while First Active went three cents better to 4.65.
CRH continued to make headway with the stock up 21 cents to €15.20 with dealers reporting good two-way interest in the stock.
Independent News & Media enjoyed an eight cents bounce rising to 1.70 as investors viewed the benefits to the group following the demise of the Dublin Evening.
Ryanair was struggling with some investors selling the stock in response to the disclosure that Fidelity had reduced its holdings. The share ended the day down 16 cent at 5.78.
