Irish shares edged up slightly in lacklustre trading as the lack of supply dampened activity, dealers said. "There is little of note happening. It's pretty featureless," according to one dealer.
Dealers said the banks were mixed. AIB regained 1 1/4p to 604p. Bank of Ireland also showed a little strength and put on 2p to 822p.
One dealer noted that only two shares showed any sort of spurt. Waterford Wedgwood put on 4p at 99p in a number of deals. Independent Newspapers added 15p to 455p.
Waterford wants to be seen more as an international giftware company with at least 30 per cent of its shares held in the US, according to its chairman Dr Tony O'Reilly. He believes that the value of the shares would rise if more shares were held in the US, particularly by large pension funds.
Just 10 per cent of the shares are held by US investors. In September, the company plans to hold a board meeting in New York and this will be followed by a presentation about the company to several major institutional investors. There was some investment interest in Independent, said one dealer. This was attributed to better results expected from APN, its Australian associate, while buoyant advertising expenditure was expected to help domestic operations, the dealer said.
Readymix was also a feature, gaining 18p to 180p in a buoyant industry sector. Smurfit, which had benefited from a buy recommendation from American broker Paine Webber, gained 2p to 234p during the day before closing fractionally up at the sterling equivalent of 232 1/4p. Irish Permanent lost 3p to 660p.
Government bonds were firmer in afternoon trading as international markets moved higher in the wake of US data. US consumer prices rose by 0.2 per cent, as forecast, while capacity use fell to 83.1 per cent in July from a revised 83.3 per cent in June, underpinning US treasuries.
"The figures coming out of the US looked OK and should have a calming influence after the recent dip in the US," said one dealer.
Traders said the Irish market also took yesterday morning's announcement by the National Treasury Management Agency of the details of its monthly auction in its stride.
