DUBLIN REPORT: Iseq:2,835.55 (-45.52) Settlement date:August 10th
THERE WAS only really one show in town yesterday as results from AIB dominated proceedings on the Irish Stock Exchange. Although the headline figures of an €872 million pre-tax loss and bad loan charges of €2.37 billion for the first half of the year made grim reading the market reacted positively.
Despite this the market reacted well and, holding on to early gains, AIB finished the day up 8.4 per cent at €1.86. Traders said this was largely because the figures were largely in line with forecasts and had not deteriorated since the bank had last communicated with the markets.
While there was a rally of banking stocks internationally the positive sentiment did not feed through to the other Irish banks. There were light volumes traded in both Bank of Ireland,which was broadly unchanged at €1.88, and Irish Life and Permanent,which was down just over 1 per cent at €3.56.
The US markets opening down and stayed that way until the close in Dublin, with the result that most Irish stocks drifted lower in the afternoon.
The overall index of Irish shares closed at 2,835.55, a loss of 45.52 or 1.58 per cent.
Although dealers said a lack of news specific to Irish stocks contributed to the low “holiday” volumes of trading there was decent activity in some stocks. On the back of William Hill’s cautious outlook on the retail betting sector there were sellers of Paddy Power in the market which drove it down 50 cent to €16.35.
Market heavyweight CRHwas also in negative territory, down almost 4 per cent to €17.50.
Other stocks in negative territory included drug firm Elan, which was down 4 per cent to €5.45 despite announcing earlier this week a royalty deal with Johnson & Johnson for its drug delivery technology.
