European markets rose early on Thursday but lost momentum in later trade as investors remained cautious on chip giant Nvidia’s latest results.
Dublin
Shipping company operator Irish Continental Group dipped 0.35 per cent to €5.64.
The Irish Ferries operator reported that first-half earnings hit €54.9 million while revenues climbed 8.5 per cent to €309.9 million.
The company boosted revenues and earnings despite a winter strom closing Holyhead port in Wales in the early part of the year.
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Ryanair edged 0.68 per cent up to €25.22, recovering ground lost on Wednesday.
Dealers said trade on the day was “a bit of a mixed bag” with no substantial moves for Irish stocks.
Housebuilder Glenveagh was 0.4 per cent up at €1.926.
Insulation and building materials maker Kingspan added 0.3 per cent to €67.15.
London
British blue chip and midcap stocks fell for a third consecutive day, with utilities and technology shares dragging on the market while investors assessed chip giant Nvidia’s results.
Drax Group led declines on the midcap, falling 7.53 per cent to 650.5 pence sterling after Britain’s financial watchdog investigated the energy company’s biomass sourcing disclosures.
Other utility stocks were also under pressure. Bord Gáis Energy owner Centrica slid 1.53 per cent to 161.3p. SSE, parent of Irish supplier Airtricity, was 1.49 per cent off at 1,754p.
Technology shares collectively shed 1.5 per cent, tracking global moves, after results of AI bellwether Nvidia fell short of some analysts’ expectations.
Precious metal mining stocks dipped 1.7 per cent, with Hochschild fell 1.94 per cent to 272.6p and Endeavour Mining falling 2 per cent to 2,492p.
Barclays slipped 1.1 per cent after the British lender agreed to sell its stake in joint venture Entercard Group to partner Swedbank AB for approximately 2.6 billion crowns (€240 million).
On the flipside, IT firm Softcat was the top gainer on the midcap index, adding 3.8% after lifting its annual profit growth forecast for the third time in six months.
Europe
Shares in Irish Distillers owner, French drinks giant, Pernod Ricard rose more than 5.7 per cent early on Thursday after the company reported a smaller-than-expected fall in annual sales and profit, while indicating improving trends.
The company said it expected tariffs to cost it €80 million a-year, far short of an earlier estimate of €200 million. Pernod shed some of the gains in later trade. The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.16 per cent.
US
The tech-heavy Nasdaq slipped in choppy trade on Thursday, constrained by weakness in Nvidia shares, as uncertainty around the Sino-US trade war forced the AI chip giant to leave out potential China sales from its quarterly forecast.
The exclusion came despite the company having secured certain licenses earlier this month to sell its H20 chips to big market China, after reaching a revenue-sharing deal with the US government.
Nvidia’s shares were last down 2.6 per cent in volatile trade, as some analysts also raised concerns about whether the company’s data centre results hinted at tighter spending by cloud providers.
The broader S&P 500 technology sector reversed early gains and dropped 0.5 per cent, while the chip index slipped 0.2 per cent.
Still, Nvidia’s strong quarterly revenue forecasts, $60 billion (€51.3 billion) share buyback plan and chief executive Jensen Huang’s upbeat comments placated investor concerns around artificial intelligence demand.
In morning trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 64.01 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 45,501.22, the S&P 500 lost 12.27 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 6,469.13 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 39.92 points, or 0.20 per cent to 21,547.73.
The other dominant theme behind the benchmark S&P 500’s rise to record highs has been expectations that the Federal Reserve could lower interest rates for the first time this year in September.
