Dublin’s Iseq 20 stocks index is on track to end 2025 with its annual biggest surge since the Irish State exited an international bailout programme a dozen years ago, driven by banks and Ryanair.
The index has jumped 32 per cent in the year to date, advancing at broadly twice the pace of both the wider European and US markets. The pan-European Stoxx 600 has risen by 15 per cent, while the S&P 500 has gained 17 per cent, largely down to a small group of technology stocks seen as benefiting from the artificial intelligence boom.
Still, the Irish market has been outperformed in Europe by national benchmark indices in Spain, Greece and Poland, which have each advanced more than 45 per cent this year.
PTSB is set to be the star of the Iseq 20, with its market capitalisation having more than doubled in value – rising 103 per cent – to almost €1.59 billion. Almost a quarter of the advance came in the wake of the bank putting itself up for sale at the end of October.
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The wider banking sector has been buoyed as the European Central Bank cut interest rates less aggressively than feared at the outset of the year, and households provided them with more cheap deposit funding.
Bank of Ireland emerged in number two position among rising stocks, adding 84 per cent. It has also benefited from an easing of fears around the level of compensation it faces having to pay out for its role in a UK car finance scandal.
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AIB has jumped 72 per cent, with sentiment underpinned as the Government sold its remaining shares in the bank, returning it to full private ownership.
Uniphar has risen 60 per cent in 2025, making it the fourth-best Iseq 20 performer, as the healthcare services and pharmacies operator delivered strong earnings growth.
Ryanair soared 54 per cent, putting it in fifth spot, as the budget airline grew revenues and earnings in a competitive market, with the bottom line helped by tight cost control. The stock has been helped by Ryanair also spending hundreds of millions of euro buying back its own shares.
Bank of Ireland, AIB and Ryanair are among the five Iseq 20 heavyweights, with the three accounting for almost 28 per cent of the index.
Bucking the trend, Kenmare Resources has lost 32 per cent of its value – with gains earlier in the year on the back of a bid approach from its former managing director, Michael Carvill and an Abu Dhabi fund proving short-lived as talks ended without a deal.
Investors became increasingly concerned as the year concerned about the drawn-out extension of a production and exports royalty deal on its mine in Mozambique, as well the declining price of its main product, a titanium mineral called ilmenite.
Kerry Group is the second-worst performer, falling 17 per cent, as analysts predict that the taste and nutrition giant is on track to miss its 4-6 per cent sales volume goal for the third straight year – amid subdued demand among its customer base.
Greencoat Renewables is third on the list of decliners, falling 16.2 per cent, while Cairn Homes has lost 12 per cent to return some of its strong gains from 2024. Malin Corporation has dipped 10 per cent.
