Weaker international markets provided a poor background for trading in Dublin yesterday, and, with fund managers increasingly reluctant to invest before the end of the year, dealers see little prospect of any bounce by the market before January.
There were losses all across the leaders, but the two big e-commerce/Internet stocks, Trintech and Baltimore, continued to roar ahead, with investors still clambering over each other to get into this gogo sector. After a pause for breath on Monday, Trintech surged ahead again on the Neuer Markt and later on Nasdaq. The shares closed up €3.60 on €58.60 (£46.15) in Frankfurt but continued to move ahead later on Nasdaq where they were trading over $8 higher above $64 (€62.62) at the Dublin close.
London-listed Baltimore dealt up £3.17 1/2 to £38.38 sterling (€60.94) and continued to rise on Nasdaq where they were trading on $64 (€62.62) at the Dublin close. Smartforce - the former CBT - was another Internet-related stock to move ahead strongly and was trading $4.75 higher on $34.75 (€34) following the announcement of its link-up with Dell.
On the Dublin market, it was no surprise that debutante Horizon gave up some of its gains and the shares were 25 cents lower on €3.85 (£3.03), where they were well-supported. The leaders were a sea of red ink and only Bank of Ireland - which pulled out of its planned takeover of ICC Bank - managed to stand still on €8.15 (£6.42). AIB was 10 cents lower on €12.65 (£9.96).
CRH fell heavily and, after hitting an opening high of €19.45, it closed at €18.73 (£14.75), down 51 cents on the day. Eircom lost 10 cents to €4.10 (£3.23), Golden Vale was five cents weaker on €1 (79p), Independent came off its high to lose 15 cents to €5.85 (£4.61) while Smurfit was eight cents lower on €2.77 (£2.18).
