With international markets rebounding nicely and the good results from Dell giving the Nasdaq a boost, the Irish market was in much better form yesterday, although most of the gains were down to a recovery by the leading financials.
Renewed speculation on an Anglo Irish/First Active merger maintained interest in the two stocks with First Active - junior partner in any merger - up another five cents to €2.50 after its big jump on Thursday. Anglo Irish was unchanged on €2.65.
Bank of Ireland managed to recover some ground after the negative reaction to its results and closed 15 cents higher on €7.25 while AIB jumped 29 cents to €10.89.
Elsewhere among the leaders, the TMT recovery allowed Eircom to regain six cents to €3.80 while CRH was 40 cents firmer on €19.40. The marginal rise in the general index was largely due to a €1.49 fall to €45.06 by Elan although the shares were trading $3/8 firmer on $40 7/8 by midday in New York. Among second-liners, Grafton was boosted by its latest British acquisition and was up €1.50 on €21.00.
The excellent results from Dell, which were well ahead of Wall Street forecasts, gave technology shares a boost on Nasdaq although the gains were not across the board. Iona and Smartforce were the main beneficiaries while Trintech, Baltimore and Riverdeep failed to benefit - at least in the opening session.
By midday, Iona was trading over $3 1/2 (€3.85) higher above $55, Smartforce was over $2 higher above $43 1/2. Baltimore, whose shares split 10-for one in London and five-for-one in New York was unchanged to marginally lower.
