Market Report

Settlement date: January 2nd, 2004

It was a quiet if not a moribund day on the Dublin market. Traders described trade as very dead, with volumes as low as had been expected, equivalent to approximately 10 per cent of a normal trading day. With no real institutional movement of any note, share prices were steady.

While there were occasional noticeable changes in price, these were considered by traders to have more to do with the low levels of dealing and availability than with a true movement in the share values.

Waterford Wedgwood was one of the few shares that traded in any volume, with three million shares moving, although the share price ended up essentially unchanged at €0.22.

Shares in Bray, Co Wicklow-based Trinity Biotech rose from 2.68 to €3, with news of the approval by the US Food and Drugs Administration of a simple-to-use HIV test produced by Trinity. The company's shares traded up almost 40 per cent on the US Nasdaq, where volumes were also higher. The company estimates there is an annual market worth $40 million (32 million) for its simple-to-use HIV test, providing an opportunity to significantly boost its $67 million per annum turnover. There is one other competitor in the US market already, although the approval for its product is not as broad as that announced yesterday for Trinity.

There were some trades in financial shares but there was little movement in share price. Anglo Irish Bank ended the day up 2 per cent at 0.25, while AIB ended the day essentially unchanged at 12.53.