Equity markets remained under pressure today, as early morning gains on the Iseq index of Irish shares were eroded throughout the day.
The Dublin market closed down half a per cent, while across Europe, the major stock markets also managed to finish close to level, despite the fragility of investor sentiment.
On another relatively subdued day of trading on the Iseq, bakery group Aryzta was the highest climber, rising 5.2 per cent to €32.09, as the company announced its intention to buy out its partner in Canadian bakery company Maidstone for €349 million. The deal is Aryzta’s third major acquisition since June.
Food group Kerry rose 2.2 per cent to €25.10 on news of its offer to buy Newmarket Co-operative Creameries at a price that values Newmarket at €33 million.
Pharmaceutical wholesale business United Drug closed down fractionally at €2.32, a day after it announced the purchase of the InforMed Group for an initial fee of £11.4 million (€13.8 million).
Building materials group CRH saw its share price fall 50 cent to €15.01, a drop of 3.2 per cent. This is its lowest closing price in almost a year and a half. The share price decline comes ahead of CRH’s interim results on August 24th and in the context of the US government’s proposed $2.2 billion reduction in federal highway funds.
Although Bank of Ireland’s interim results on Wednesday were ahead of some analysts’ expectations, the stock fell today, finishing down 1.8 per cent at 82 cent on what was a weak day for the banking sector. AIB and Irish Life & Permanent also endured share price declines, with the latter the hardest hit of the financial stocks on the day.
Meanwhile, pharmaceutical group Elan, which fell 1.6 per cent to €3.84, has announced further details its proposed debt refinancing, which Davy analyst Jack Gorman said would provide the group with “plenty of scope to continue to invest in its emerging pipeline” of drugs.
