DESPITE the weaker tone in international equity markets, share, prices in Dublin pushed ahead to another new all time high, boosted by a late influx of funds from overseas.
The opening session was dull, but the market closed well bid, and further gains are possible, although dealers believe this will involve selected stocks and may knot be a broad based advance.
There was nothing spectacular in yesterday's price movements. Among the leaders, AIB was up 21/2p on 336p while Bank of Ireland was 2p firmer on 467p. CRH added 3p to 590p as the market responded favourably to the latest modest investment in Europe.
The view in the market is that it much prefers CRH to be involved in small to medium sized add on acquisitions rather than in expensive bids for the likes of Meyer or Redland.
Smurfit was unchanged on 168p US paper group Stone's first quarter results were in line with forecasts and have done nothing to change the attitude towards the sector. Among second liners, "Avonmore firmed 3p to 148p while DCC added 10p to 250p, just off its all time high of 1994.
There seems to be something of, an attitude change towards industrial holding companies and both DCC and James Crean have benefited in recent weeks from this improved tone.
Another holding company, Fifzwilton, eased 2p to 56p UBS subsidiary PDFM disclosed that it had bought another 2.1 million shares to bring its stake to 15.36 per cent, making it Fitzwilton's largest shareholder.
M&G emerged as the buyer of 3.1 million Heiton shares 7.1 per cent of the total equity sold last week by AIB Investment Managers. AIB's stake in Heiton, has now fallen to around 19 per cent, making it the second biggest shareholder behind DCC's 24.5 per cent.
IAWS gained 2p to 152p, Irish Life was Vip easier on 2501/2p, while Waterford Wedgwood continued to be one of the market favourites and closed up 11/4p on 71/2p. Tullow which reports results today once again dealt in size in London (3.4 million shares) but closed unchanged on 851/2p sterling (81p).
