European shares hit a five-week closing low today after disappointing data from the US, and Standard and Poor’s downgrading of Ireland’s credit rating weighing on the market.
In Dublin, there was some reprieve for the Irish market, a day after the ISEQ experienced its biggest slump since October 2009 on the back of heavy falls by CRH. The Dublin market closed up a half a per cent on the day, mainly due to a slight bounce back by CRH. The building materials group, the largest constituent on the index, added 2 per cent to finish at €11.96, having sustained falls of almost 17 per cent yesterday.
Strong first-half results from corporates gave a welcome boost to the markets, on a day when Ireland's financial health was in the spotlight following the Standard & Poors downgrading of Ireland's credit rating. Analysts noted that the banking stocks performed fairly well considering the downgrade, with the stocks having already priced in concerns about Ireland's credit worthiness and the ability of banks to source funding.
AIB was weak throughout the day, falling as low as 74 cent during mid-afternoon trading. It finished almost 3 per cent lower at €0.78. Having traded down for much of the day, Bank of Ireland rallied towards the end of the session, in line with a recovery in US markets, and managed to add 1 per cent to finish at €0.78.
Paddy Power was the star performer after the company reported a 54 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to €52.5 million for the first six months of the year and predicted that full-year earnings could rise by 30 per cent. Its share price rose by more than 5 per cent in morning trading but fell back slightly during the day to close up 2. 5 per cent at €26.66. Volumes were very low on the stock, however.
Glanbia added just under 1.5 per cent to €3.43, after posting a 40 per cent rise in operating profits for the first half of the year.
FBD, which also published interim results today, shed three-quarters of a per cent to close at €6.94, despite reporting a narrowing of losses in the first half of this year.
