Markets rebound from trading dips

Many market traders, particularly in Britain, were mourning the passing of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher yesterday, but the major market news was a recovery from three previous trading days of dips.

In Britain and across Europe the trend was a slight rebounding in fortunes particularly in what could be termed "defensive shares".

DUBLIN
Trading was light in Dublin yesterday following the return from the Easter holidays. "It was a fairly quiet day with markets performing marginally better than the kicking they received last week. Markets were slightly flat but an improvement on last week which was reflected in the share prices," said one stockbroker.

Ryanair, CRH and C&C were the main movers yesterday. Ryanair started the day positively but closed lower in the last 20 minutes of trading, finishing the day down 2.15 per cent to €5.70. It closed €5.80 in London which one stockbroker described as a "fairer reflection."

CRH was slightly up at €16.09 down 0.37 per cent. C&C had a good performance, closing up by 1.7 per cent to €4.95. After a bad week for Paddy Power last week, they moved up 1.2 per cent closing at €66.20. Tullow Oil closed at €13.91, up 2.65 per cent.

LONDON
Britain's top share index halted a three-day slide yesterday as investors, unnerved by worsening economic data, piled into defensive shares while some battered mining stocks rebounded.

Russia-based precious metal miner Polymetal, which trades at one of the lowest valuation multiples among UK blue chips, rose 5 per cent to the top of the FTSE yesterday after unveiling a 30 payout on its 2012 net profit. The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Resolution down 4.5p at 261.4p, Lloyds Banking Group down 0.71p at 46.31p, Royal Bank of Scotland off 3.4p at 266.1p and Centrica down 4.3p at 369.8p. The FTSE 100 was up 27.16 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 6,276.94 after dropping 1.5 per cent on Friday, when much weaker than expected jobs data from the US sent the FTSE to a two-month low.

Shares in food and beverage companies were the heavyweight gainers on Monday, adding 6.4 points to the index as investors snapped up shares that are typically resilient to the whims of the economic cycle.

EUROPE
European stocks climbed, rebounding from the biggest three-day selloff since July, as German industrial production increased more than forecast and investors awaited the start of US earnings season. Lundin Petroleum AB rallied the most in six weeks after discovering oil in the North Sea. Novartis AG and Roche Holding AG led health-care companies higher, rising more than 1.5 per cent. Banco Espirito Santo SA , Portugal's largest publicly traded lender, fell 3.4 per cent after a court blocked part of the government's deficit-reduction plan.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.2 per cent to 287.64 at the close of trading. The gauge slid 2.3 per cent last week as U.S. jobs data signalled the recovery in the world's largest economy has slowed. France's CAC 40 and Germany's DAX added 0.1 per cent. The volume of shares changing hands in Stoxx 600 companies today was 27 per cent less than the average over the past 30 days.

US
US stocks slipped yesterday as investors faced the prospect of a lacklustre corporate earnings season, which could challenge the market's recent record high.

Following the biggest weekly drop of the year for the Standard and Poor's 500 Index, investors awaited Alcoa's financial release to mark the beginning of the earnings season. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals surged 21 per cent as China expedited the approval of its anti-influenza drug Peramivir. Lufkin Industries jumped 38 per cent as General Electric Co. agreed to buy the maker of oil- well pumps.