SHARES in Ryanair had a turbulent week after the stock was downgraded by analysts at Merrion Stockbrokers and Citigroup.

Both houses voiced concerns about the impact of higher fuel prices on Ryanair after the unwinding of its current fuel hedging system next month. Merrion's John Mattimoe also voiced some concerns that with no significant attrition in the European aviation sector over the winter it will be difficult for yields to rise without hitting demand or load factors. Mattimoe - alongside most other stock market analysts - remains very positive on the Ryanair story over the longer term, but has nevertheless downgraded his stance on the stock from add to reduce due to shortterm uncertainties. Based on Mattimoe's downgrade, Ryanair dropped out of Merrion's 10 Irish stock model portfolio and was replaced by DCC.

Shares in Ryanair, which were trading at 8.05 at the start of last week, dropped as low as 7.60 on Thursday before recovering some of the lost ground on Friday.

Ryanair has results this week and is likely to report another record set of turnover and profit numbers. But with the airline adding routes, bases and planes that is to be expected. Ryanair is likely to carry 35 million passengers in the current financial year, helped in part by the growth in migrant workers as the airline's increasing footprint in central Europe wins extra business. Stock watchers will want details on yield for the quarter and management's expectation of the yield environment for the remainder of this year.

RAMCO SELLS STAKE IN SOUTHERN GASFIELD

IT WAS the end of a shortlived era last week as Scottish exploration firm Ramco finally divested itself of its remaining 86.5% stake in the troubled Seven Heads gas field off the south coast for almost 9m.

As expected, the operator of the Kinsale field, Marathon, acquired the holding. Most of the remainder - 12.5% - is owned by minnow Island Oil and Gas. Once promised as an El Dorado of riches, Ramco quickly found out that the field it hoped to exploit was too segmented to provide a sizeable, high pressure gas flow.

Ramco had borrowed almost 100m from Bank of Scotland in 2002 to develop Seven Heads, much of that secured against gas production from the field that never materialised. In 2000, Ramco also sold a small stake in an offshore Azerbaijani field for 150m, which was also diverted towards Seven Heads.

Ramco had expected to produce between 600,000 and 700,000 therms of gas daily from Seven Heads. A therm is roughly 100 cubic feet of gas. It now produces just about 50,000 a day.

Davy Stockbrokers' analyst Job Langbroek said in a note last week that the acquisition by Marathon of Ramco's stake is "good news" for Island Oil and Gas, which he predicts may benefit from the US firm seeking to "maximise the value of the remaining reserves and more, if possible".

HORIZON SETS ITS SIGHTS ON UK MARKET

IT distributor Horizon Technology has given a strong signal of its ambitions for its UK business with the 15m purchase of networking and security specialist Equip.

Horizon's rationale for the deal is that it will fill a gap in its suite of products in the UK. Equip focuses exclusively on the corporate market, where Horizon has been make inroads. The Irish distributor recently signed a partnership deal with IBM in the UK and with the acquisition of Equip is clearly looking to build on that momentum.

Horizon shares fell just over 1% on news of the deal, Horizon's first acquisition for some time, which will be funded partly by an 8.5m share placing.

Industry observers, however, were largely positive on the move.

Goodbody's analyst Gerry Hennigan said the Equip purchase demonstrated that the company was clearly looking for opportunities to scale up its business in the UK and that it was "not content purely to pursue the organic growth route as it has in the recent past".

Davy Stockbrokers' Alan Daly meanwhile, said the deal was a "positive development", opening up a new growth market for Horizon. At the same time, he said, the purchase price appears to have been right.

"The consideration of 15.5m for Equip does not look excessive, " he said.

US STANCE ON AIDS FAVOURS TRINITY

TRINITY Biotech stands to benefit from an increased financial commitment to AIDS testing by the US government.

In his annual state of the union address last week, US President George W.

Bush proposed that $90m ( 75m) of the federal budget this year be spent on purchasing and distributing testing kits for up to three million Americans identified as being at high risk of contracting the HIV virus.

More specifically, $20m of the money will be directed towards testing in US prisons, with an equivalent amount to be spent in the healthcare sector, testing doctors and nurses who routinely come into contact with HIV positive intravenous drug users.

Trinity Biotech is one of the few firms which has gained approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to manufacture and distribute rapid HIV tests in the US.

As such it will hope to capitalise on the government's new testing drive in at $13.4m for 2005.