CRH at €16.90 ahead of trading update

Cement Road Holdings was the biggest mover on the Irish Stock Exchange today up 46c to €16.90.

Analysts expect the company to report a decrease in pre-tax profits of 4% to €824m when it issues a trading update on Wednesday.

Currency movements of €90m are expected to be reported. Goodbody stockbrokers expect its Irish operations to be the star performer on the back of continued strength in the residential sector.

CRH will also give details of its development/acquisition spend in the second half of 2003. In the first half of the year CRH completed 19 bolt-on deals totally €375m, which was in addition to the €189m spent on acquiring the US materials business SE Johnson in May.

Fellow construction groups Grafton and Heiton were up 10c and 14c to €5.60 and €4.24 repectively. Earlier, a report by Sherry Fitzgerald estate agents said first time buyers were still fuelling demand for housing despite a decrease in the rate of house price inflation.

Financials saw AIB down 8c to €12.72, Anglo Irish down 13c to €12.77 while Bank of Ireland bucked the trend, up 7c to €11.07.

Insurance group FBD dropped 20c to €13.80 while Irish Life was up 43c to €13.18. Fruit distributor Fyffes was traded heavily in the morning with 1.5m shares changing hands.

The stock closed at €1.71 up 4c, its highest level since May 2000.