Global shares rise on the eve of US inflation data

Global shares rose and the dollar was little changed on Tuesday on the eve of US inflation data that could warrant a quicker end to Federal Reserve rate hikes, while the prospect of China propping up growth helped to lift oil and other commodities.

Dublin

Euronext Dublin finished the day up 2.2 per cent as it outperformed international peers, largely on the back of insulation specialist Kingspan which wooed investors with an unscheduled trading update. Shares in the company soared almost 16 per cent after it said it expected to report record profits for the first half of the year.

“The Iseq was an outperformer today, in large part down to the performance of Kingspan,” a trader said. “They had an unscheduled trading update out which was very well received. That had a big skew on the index.”

Among the financial names, AIB finished the day up 0.5 per cent, while Bank of Ireland was up 1 per cent.

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Elsewhere, some of the other big names on the index also climbed, with building materials giant CRH and Paddy Power Betfair parent Flutter Entertainment, both up 2 per cent.

Meanwhile, box-maker Smurfit Kappa was up 1.5 per cent, albeit on light volumes, while Ryanair climbed 75 basis points.

There was a “slight bit of weakness” in Kerry Group, which finished the day down 30 basis points, a trader noted.

London

The FTSE 100 treaded water as expectations for UK interest rates flew higher following record-matching wage growth data. The top index managed to reverse losses from earlier in the day and closed 0.12 per cent higher.

In company news, restructuring specialist Begbies Traynor said its pretax profit had climbed in the latest financial year after it cashed in on more corporate insolvencies amid tougher economic conditions. The company told shareholders it was upping its dividend for a sixth year in a row after the positive financial performance. Nevertheless, its share price slipped by 0.4 per cent.

Meanwhile, shares in retailers including JD Sports Fashion, Primark owner Associated British Foods and Next all flew toward the top of the FTSE 100 after new figures showed retail sales were boosted in June amid a spell of warmer weather.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Unite Group, up 25.5p to 882.5p, Land Securities Group, up 15.4p to 582p, JD Sports Fashion, up 3.45p to 144.5p, Associated British Foods, up 40p to 2,050p, and Flutter Entertainment, up 280p to 15,435p.

The biggest fallers were Rentokil, down 10p to 590.4p, Convatec Group, down 3.1p to 196.7p, Rolls-Royce Holdings, down 2.25p to 145.65p, Melrose Industries, down 7p to 484.5p and Relx, down 32p to 2,442p.

Europe

On the continent, it was a positive trading session for France’s Cac, which closed 1.07 per cent higher, and Germany’s Dax, which was up 0.75 per cent.

The MSCI All-World index rose 0.53 per cent, lifted by gains in European shares, with the Stoxx 600 up about 0.7 per cent.

Daimler Truck Holding climbed 2.5 per cent after it said it would buy back €2 billion of its own shares and raised its expectations for the year.

New York

The S&P 500 and the Dow rose modestly in advance of inflation data as investors were hopeful that a slowdown in price increases could support a sooner-than-expected end to the Federal Reserve’s policy of rapid monetary tightening.

At 11.41am eastern time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.44 per cent; the S&P 500 was 0.21 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.02 per cent.

Activision Blizzard jumped 10.5 per cent after a US judge ruled that Microsoft may go forward with its planned $69 billion acquisition of the video game maker. Microsoft edged 0.2 per cent down.

Offering support to the Dow, Salesforce advanced 3 per cent after the cloud services firm said it would increase prices of some of its cloud and marketing tools, a first in seven years. – Additional reporting: agencies