Greencore dips 4.5% while banks make slight gains

DUBLIN REPORT: Iseq: 2,885.44 (+9.88) Settlement date: December 29th: VOLUMES WERE light yesterday, on the penultimate full day of trading on the Irish stock exchange – markets will close at lunchtime on Christmas Eve.

Nonetheless, there was some stock-specific news to keep things moving.

Greencore was one of the major talking points after it was confirmed that Boparan, a 6.6 per cent shareholder in Northern Foods, had made a preliminary approach to the company, potentially scuppering the much-vaunted merger between Greencore and Northern Foods.

The development was not good news for Greencore’s share price, which traded down for most of the day, finishing 4.5 per cent off at €1.27.

Markets also digested the news that Aer Lingus has agreed to pay its employee share ownership trust (Esot) €25.3 million, an announcement that was made after markets closed on Tuesday.

Aer Lingus lost almost 1 per cent, closing at €1.12, though some analysts pointed out that the payment had been expected at some point, and would actually increase liquidity in the stock.

AIB continued to defy market logic, trading at €0.40 despite the prospect of imminent nationalisat- ion.

However, it did shed 5 per cent, as analysts waited development on the Government’s recapitalisation of the bank which is expected before Christmas.

Bank of Ireland and Irish Life and Permanent gained ground, rising 1.2 per cent and 1 per cent respectively.

Merrion Pharmaceuticals dropped 3 cent, or just under 1 cent, after the company announced it had signed a collaboration and option agreement with Novo Nordisk.

Overall, the Iseq ended the session 0.3 per cent higher, in line with the trend in world markets which were mostly higher.