Hotels group Dalata and Kingspan were both closely watched on the Irish market on Wednesday, the former due to the company releasing half-year results and the latter because of the release of the Grenfell report that morning.
Dublin
Hospitality company Dalata finished down 5.6 per cent today, falling to €4.10 a share when markets closed on Wednesday. This was despite the business announcing a €30 million share buyback scheme.
It followed the company releasing half-year results on Wednesday which showed its revenue was up by 6 per cent but its profit after tax declined by 15 per cent, compared with the same period the previous year.
Kingspan rose marginally today by 0.58 per cent, finishing at €78.40. It follows the release of the Grenfell report on Wednesday morning which said the company “knowingly created a false market” for the insulation used on Grenfell Tower.
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London
Britain’s main stock index ended lower on Wednesday, led by a drop in personal goods and home builder stocks, while investors assessed crucial UK and US economic data ahead of interest rate decisions by central banks in coming weeks.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was down 0.4 per cent, touching its lowest levels in three weeks earlier in the session. The domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 ended flat, after its biggest drop in almost a month.
Rate-sensitive home builders hit near one-month lows, down 2.9 per cent, after Barratt Developments said it did not anticipate profit growth until fiscal 2026. The home builder slipped 4.6 per cent.
The personal goods index lost 4 per cent, touching its lowest levels since February 2010, as sectoral heavyweights Burberry and Watches of Switzerland Group dipped 4.5 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively.
Automobiles and parts were the top sectoral gainer, climbing 2.2 per cent, while aerospace and defence shares added 0.9 per cent as Rolls-Royce continued gains for the second session, adding 1.8 per cent.
On the data front, a survey showed Britain’s services activity grew last month at the fastest pace since April and price pressures eased, pointing to a more benign inflation outlook and a settling of the economy after July’s election.
Europe
The Stoxx 600 closed down 1 per cent today in a week where little has changed on the European market, with the European Central Bank (ECB) widely expected to cut rates by a quarter point.
The ECB is “pretty predictable”, said Marco Meijer, deputy head of fixed income at Mediolanum International, but “Fed policymakers will either lower rates by half a point or open the door for bigger cuts at subsequent meetings”, fuelling volatility.
New York
The Nasdaq slipped and the benchmark S&P 500 was flat on Wednesday after a soft job openings report fanned concerns about the health of the US economy.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed job openings in the month of July stood at 7.673 million, lower than the 8.1 million that economists polled by Reuters were expecting.
The data comes ahead of the crucial August non-farm payrolls numbers due on Friday, which could sway bets on the size of the Federal Reserve’s expected interest rate cut in September.
Markets now expect a 53 per cent chance of a 25-basis point cut, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, down from more than 61 per cent earlier in the day, while that of a 50 bps cut stands at 47 per cent.
Nvidia fell 0.8 per cent after a report said the US department of justice sent a subpoena to the AI chip firm as it deepens its probe into the company’s antitrust practices.
Other growth stocks such as Apple slipped 2 per cent, Amazon.com lost 1.2 per cent and Microsoft fell 0.7 per cent.
Zscaler forecast fiscal 2025 revenue and profit below estimates, sending its shares down 17.2 per cent, while Dollar Tree slumped 18.6 per cent after the discount store operator trimmed its annual sales and profit forecasts. – Additional reporting: agencies
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