Lacklustre performances on international stock markets provided little impetus for the Irish market where most stocks closed slightly lower although trading volumes were low. Technology shares, however, continued their recovery after the recent sell-off although dealers cautioned that technology gains will probably trigger profit-taking by smaller investors who held during the recent slump and who now want to get out of what is undoubtedly going to be a volatile sector.
Among the technology shares, those which fell further gained the most yesterday. Baltimore jumped £7.87 to £87.72 sterling in London and was trading almost $13 higher by midday in New York around $162. Others to gain by varying amounts included Iona, Smartforce and Trintech while Riverdeep bounced back after heavy falls last Friday.
Financial and industrial shares in Dublin suffered at the hands of international weakness with AIB down 13 cents on €9.65, Irish Life down 15 cents on €9.20 while Bank of Ireland was eight cents lower on €6.73.
Among the industrials, CRH - which announced the €77 million acquisition of Yule Catto's rooflighting business - was 10 cents firmer on €19.25, while Eircom - embroiled in the seemingly interminable new generation mobile phone auction in Britain - was seven cents lower on €4.70.
Independent was 15 cents easier on €10.30 ahead of results tomorrow, Kerry eased 10 cents to €13.00 after its recent good run post-results, while Fyffes was 7 1/2 cents lower on €2.55 as the profit warning continued to weigh on the shares.
