{TEXT} Wall Street's failure to maintain its early recovery meant that international stock markets were little changed yesterday. The Dublin market was no exception with little movement in prices although there was some sizeable trading in selected stocks.
More than 5.3 million Smurfit shares traded but the share price was unchanged at €2.45 despite enthusiastic post-results cheerleading from UBS Warburg and Deutsche Bank Alex Brown.
A UBS report suggested that Irish institutional selling of Smurfit has diminished and there are even signs that Irish institutions are now even returning as buyers of Smurfit.
Market sources said, however, that there are no obvious signs of any renewed Irish interest in Smurfit shares whatever UBS might believe.
The only other stock to trade in any decent size was Bank of Ireland where 2.7 million shares traded as the price stood still at €10.45. AIB was 5 cents firmer at €12.40 although Irish Life - which reports interim results next week - was 15 cents lower at €13.50.
CRH also reports interim results next week, but the share remains weak ahead of those results and fell another 40 cents yesterday and has now fallen almost 11 per cent in the past two weeks. Glanbia continued its good run and was 4 cents higher at €1.16 while IAWS rose another 15 cents to €8.50. Ryanair, however, fell 21 cents to €11.00.
Some of the Irish technology stocks listed on overseas markets regained ground. In London, Parthus was 3p firmer at 39.5p sterling and was trading more than 12 per cent higher by midday on Nasdaq at $6.
