THE Dublin market was revitalised yesterday with Greencore and CRH leading the upward charge.
The ISEQ rose by more than 0.75 per cent to close only a few points off its all time high.
Financial shares were dull while gilts took a hammering especially at the medium long end of the market where prices fell by between £1 and £1.50.
After falling to 591p earlier in the week, CRH was in better demand and dealt up 9p to 600p. The Greencore results came in ahead of market forecasts and led to upgradings by Dublin analysts and a sharp rise in the share price. Greencore shares dealt up to a new high of 372p before settling at 370p - a rise of 8p on the day.
Financials were dull with Bank of Ireland unchanged on 518p, although AIB was 2p firmer on 390p and Woodchester gained 4p to 214p. Irish Life was 1p firmer on 280p but Irish Permanent came off its high, closing down 2p on 498p.
There was little activity in second liners although Kingspan was 2p easier on 515p with renewed reports that its bid for Ward Building Systems was back on the rails. The big question here is whether Kingspan - which has built up a high gearing this year - will need to go to the market for funds for an acquisition of the size of Ward.
Weaker international bond markets partly contributed to the sharp fall in gilt prices, although the Irish market still underperformed other markets. The trend of selling - negligible price changes at the very short end of the market to a £1.50 fall for the long dated benchmark stock - resulted in a sharp steepening in the yield curve.
As a result, 20 year gilts closed on a yield of 6.82 per cent, 10 year stock was on a yield of 6:59 per cent while five year gilts yielded 5.98 per cent at the close.
