Banks attract most interest in slow day of trading

DUBLIN REPORT: Iseq: 2,347.89 (-26.16) Settlement date: December 30thTHE DUBLIN exchange was all but abandoned yesterday with little interest or appetite left for trading. Share sales that would normally be counted in the millions were occurring in the low hundreds of thousands, if at all.

Any interest was concentrated on the banks following the Government's recapitalisation plan for the two main banks and Anglo Irish Bank.

Bank of Irelandsaw approximately seven million of its 1,000 million shares in issue change hands. The share price ended the day at €0.87, a drop of more than 2 per cent.

AIB'sshare price went in the opposite direction, ending the day up 5.99 per cent, at €1.77. Four million of its 880 million shares in issue were traded.

Anglo Irish Bankcontinued to tank. Its shares ended the day at €0.18, a drop of 36.67 per cent on the previous day. More than eight million shares were traded. In January last the shares were trading at €10 each.

The Irish Takeover Panel announced it would not be conducting hearings into allegations concerning Irish Continental Group. Last week, chief executive Eamonn Rothwell and his consortium Moonduster announced they were engaged in discussions about a potential bid.

But these factors sparked zero interest in the group's shares, with no sales on the Dublin market.

Fyffesrose 9.76 per cent on the day, ending at €0.27 while Independent News & Mediafell by 6.38 per cent, to €0.411. Kerry Groupshares fell by a similar percentage, 6.23, ending the day at €13.4.

But once again the volumes were so thin as to be close to invisible. Only 119,000 Independent shares changed hands, and 200,000 Fyffes shares.

Dragon Oilrose 8.22 per cent, to €1.60, on the back of less than 25,000.