The sell-off in technology stocks on Wall Street continued to undermine the Irish stock market and, with Wall Street's "triple-witching hour" - the coincidental expiry of stock options, stock futures and index options due today - markets are likely to remain nervous. If "triple-witching" passes without incident, the dealers believe that the markets can look forward to a leisurely wind-down to the Christmas-New Year.
Price changes among the leaders in Dublin were minor. AIB closed up 5p on 658p, Bank of Ireland was up 1 1/2p on 1040p, CRH eased 1p to 794p, while Smurfit dealt in sizeable volumes in a narrow range before closing unchanged on a final sterling-denominated deal at the equivalent of 185p. JS Corp was down 25 cents at the Dublin close on $14.75, with absolutely no sign that the proposed restructuring is any nearer completion.
There was some activity in the second-liners, and market newcomer BCO continued the trend of new issues trading up strongly after flotation with a 10p jump to 176p, a rise of 22p from the 140p sterling placing and flotation price.
Iona Technologies - already listed on Nasdaq - joins the market today and should trade at around £12.50-£13, based on recent Nasdaq levels. Iona is likely to get a good welcome from domestic investors, who will he happy to have the opportunity of buying the stock without taking the exchange rate of buying through dollars on Nasdaq. Iona will be the 25th biggest company on the Irish market.
Fyffes was 1p firmer on 106p despite a recent sharp fall in EU banana prices. Green was unchanged on 400p as its rights issue got a 99 per cent take-up, with the miniscule rump of the issue placed in the market on 390p - 40p above the rights issue price.
IAWS was 1p easier on 258p. there There are reports that the group is close to a £6 million sterling fertiliser acquisition in Scotland, a move that would diversify IAWS's British fertiliser operations from its main English base.
Kerry jumped to 775p before closing up 15p on 755p ahead of deadline for Dalgety bids. Lyons was 35p higher on 365p while Powerscreen dealt at 724p in Dublin after announcing a £7 million materials handling acquisition in Northern Ireland.
Donegal Creameries remained well-bid on 255p, 90p above last Friday's placing and flotation price. Marlborough gained 3p to 170p while Tullow - still the focus of vague takeover talk - was 4p lower on 163p. Waterford Wedgwood gained 2p to 93p while United Drug was 7p higher on 415p.
Meanwhile, Elan shares continue to suffer after the announcement this week that it was to make a $375 million all-paper acquisition of the US Sano Group. Yesterday Elan was quoted in Dublin at $47.50. This translates to around £32.67, compared to the previous day's £34.50. In later dealing on the Nasdaq in New York, Elan was trading at $46.81, compared to $53.60 before the Sano deal was announced.
