For most of yesterday it was another typically humdrum August day on the Irish market, but shortly before the close the two big banking shares were hit by a flurry of dealing in London with very large blocks of stock changing hands.
While AIB closed up eight cents at €9.70 in Dublin with little more than half a million shares trading, two lines of stocks involving a total of 11 million shares went through the London market at €9.40 late in the day. Similarly, while Bank of Ireland eased two cents lower to €6.65 in Dublin on turnover of 400,000 shares, over 4.6 million shares went through the London market with the share up five cents at €6.77.
Dealers were uncertain what was behind the late flurry but one said that while there has been a discernible move from Bank of Ireland to AIB in recent weeks, yesterday's activity may be the beginning of value investors returning to the Irish banks, attracted by the very large discount between the Irish banks and their euro zone peers.
Irish Life was another financial to remain in good demand and the share was up another 23 cents on €9.60. First Active, however, fell 15 cents to a new low of €1.70, although less than 9,000 shares were involved.
The main feature among the industrials was strong demand for Independent, where a line of two million shares put through the Dublin market drove the share up 27 cents to €3.82. Relief that the iTouch flotation has gone through - albeit at a lower price - may be behind the renewed demand for Independent, said one dealer.
Otherwise it was mixed, with Eircom down four cents to €2.59, although CRH bounded ahead with a 22-cent gain to €18.18. IWP was unchanged on €1.60 after buying back 300,000 shares in London at 95p sterling (€1.57). Green was up 20 cents on €7.00 ahead of interim results today and possibly some statement by the group on the various options it has been mulling over for its corporate future. Horizon was five cents easier on €8.95 as the group issued 1.5 million shares to its employee share option plan, bringing the ESOP's stake to just under 5 per cent.
