The banking sector of the Irish market got some much-needed good news today with the announcement that private investors have committed to taking a stake in Bank of Ireland.
The news that unnamed private equity investors are to buy up to €1.1 billion of the State's shares in Bank of Ireland pushed the lender's share price up to 11 cent at one point. It had slipped back to 10.2 cent by the close, but this still represented a gain of 1 per cent.
Acting as a reminder of the challenges still facing the banking sector was AIB, which reported an underlying net loss of €2.6 billion for the first half.
"It wasn't big news in the way that it would have been in the past," a trader noted, describing the results as "ho hum". The bank is "still a basket case, losing a fortune", but people have moved on to a certain extent, he said.
AIB jumped more than 8 per cent, but he pointed out that "the laws of small numbers" apply to the stock, as this translated into a move of just 1.1 cent, bringing it to 13.5 cent.
Elsewhere, Ryanair shed about six cent to end at €3.40. Though its first-quarter results released today were broadly in line with consensus, the airline left its full-year guidance unchanged. Brokers believed this may have disappointed investors, as expectations of an upgrade were raised after easyJet upped its guidance for full-year profits last Friday.
CRH also had a down day, slipping 1 per cent, or 14.5 cent, to €14.31 after Cemex missed profit expectations, partly due to a poor performance in the US.
With its two largest components weighing on it, the Iseq slipped into the red, closing about eight points off at 2,919.06.
National benchmark indexes declined in every western European market, except Germany. France's CAC 40 Index lost 0.8 per cent, while the UK's FTSE 100 Index slid 0.2 per cent. Germany's DAX Index advanced 0.3 per cent.
Additional reporting - Bloomberg