DOWN 3 per cent after employment figures that indicated no further cuts in US interest rates, were likely, back up 2 per cent the following day and followed by another day's trading when the market went from a loss of 100 points to a gain of five.
There was little logic to trading, in New York in the first part of the past week and Wall Street volatility meant that players on the Dublin market didn't seem to know which way to turn. Bulls and bears slugged it out on Wall Street and, by the close of trading in Dublin yesterday, it looked as if the bears had once again gained an advantage.
And with US treasury bonds diving in response to the Friday employment figures, falls that were mirrored on European bond markets, it was the yield sensitive financial shares that felt the brunt of the negative sentiment. AIB, Bank of Ireland and Irish Life felt the worst of the selling with large lines of stock coming on offer, out of London in particular. By the end of the week, however, the financials had bounced off their worst levels although they are unlikely to scale the heights of earlier in the year, when AIB hit 1,368p, Bank of Ireland 469p and Irish Life 260p.
Sentiment towards Irish Life will be influenced by next week's results - the company's broker, Davy, is forecasting embedded value profits of £77 million and earnings per share of 25.30p - up from £74 million and 24.1p a year ago.
Industrial shares managed to resist much of the weakness on Wall Street and London and Smurfit, for one, put in an extremely creditable performance. As a cyclical stock, Smurfit tends to do best when the economies in which it operates are moving ahead - the interpretation put on the US employment figures was that the economic slowdown was easing and a economic rebound was likely.
That economic boost, the elimination of the Tiger overhang and Dr Michael Smurfit's statement, that he might reintroduce a chief operating executive all helped to boost the share. If Smurfit does intend to appoint someone to the position once held by Mr Howard Kilroy, Mr Ray Curran is seen as a front runner.
CRH also closed the week with renewed bidding for the shares and shook off the negative sentiment that knocked the sector after poor results from Costain and Tarmac in Britain. Despite some suggestions that CRH depends too much on its Irish operations to overcome poor returns from Britain, CRH is still seen as a sound investment in a sector where indifferent performances have become the norm - even from some, of the giants of the sector.
Fyffes disposal of the Geest banana operations in Costa Rica was also welcomed by the market. The elimination of these loss making plantations should boost operating profits for the Fyffes/Wibdeco joint venture by £7 million sterling, and allow the former Geest operations to return to a reasonable level of profitability by 1997.
Finally, despite dismissal of takeover rumours by the company itself Tullow continued to trade heavily and was firmly bid most of the week - boosted by the repeated talk of a British Gas bid and speculation that current drilling may produce good results.
The takeover talk about Tullow will simply not go away.
