The Dublin market was moderately strong yesterday with most of the attention on the first liners.
While not quite matching the heights of London, dealers said trading volumes were high although interest was not necessarily reflected in closing prices.
The day was very mixed, with the market only firming up when London hit its high and Wall Street showed considerable strength.
In Wall Street the Dow Jones industrial average index jumped 70 points as US stocks firmed on the back of market friendly comments by Federal Reserve chairman, Mr Alan Greenspan.
Dublin dealers expressed satisfaction with the Wall Street gains as they had been expecting President Clinton's problems to keep the market depressed.
A bond dealer said Mr Greenspan's comments about bonds in particular had helped push up that market, in a trend that was observable all across Europe. Dealers also took solace from Mr Greenspan's reaction to the crisis in Asia. He said the events in that region may end up giving the US some breathing room for inflationary pressures.
Meanwhile, the market continued to punish Powerscreen after it issued a profit warning and admitted irregularities had been found in its subsidiary, Matbro at the start of the week.
It started the day at 262p sterling, but saw 12p shaved off before the close.
"There has been some contact between the company and the market, but there needs to be more, involving reassurances about its various subsidiaries".
Many dealers are speculating about a takeover bid with companies like Ingersoll-Rand and JCB among those most regularly mentioned. "The longer the shares stay at this level the greater the chance it will happen," said another dealer.
CRH was one of the main movers on the day, rising from 843p to 852.78p in heaving trading. Dealers said despite the impressive gains of recent weeks, the share price was still playing "catch up".
Despite problems with Newspaper Publishing, the company which publishes the London Independent and the Independent on Sunday, In- dependent Newspapers made gains on the day, rising from 457.5p to 460p.
Irish Permanent rose from 847.2p to 860 as part of its normal upwards pattern, while Irish Life shed 5p to end at 458p.
Mining company, Ivernia West gained 4p, from 90p to 94p on the strength of its half year interim results which showed that it has a cash balance over £25 million.
There will be interest in how Ryanair's share price performs next week as yesterday saw the its first drop for some time, down 10p from 350p to 340p.
It is not clear if the drop reflects any lack of confidence in the market about how the company is handling the strike by its baggage handlers.
