CRH 'the one shining light' as banks feel pressure

DUBLIN REPORT: Iseq:2,706.24 (+12.00 ) Settlement date:November 8th

SUSTAINED PRESSURE on Irish Government bonds took its toll on Irish financial stocks listed on the Iseq yesterday, with only a climb by building materials group CRH lifting the index into positive territory.

As Irish bond yields rose to 7.45 per cent and the cost of insuring sovereign debt against default reached a fresh record, investors deserted the Irish banks, with Irish Life & Permanent closing down 7.7 per cent at €1.34.

On another difficult day for the banking stocks, AIB eventually finished down almost 4.5 per cent at 32 cent, while Bank of Ireland escaped with a 1 per cent drop to 49 cent.

The ascent of CRH amid “reasonably good sentiment towards the cement market”, according to one Dublin dealer, meant the stock was “the one shining light” on the index. Having traded as high as €13.50, as buyers piled in, the stock eventually came back a little in the afternoon, closing at €13.05. This was still up more than 3 per cent, or 40 cent on the day.

Ryanair, meanwhile, was more or less flat on the day, closing at €4.00, down 1 cent on the previous session, as it published numbers showing the number of passengers it carried in October increased to 7 million, up 14 per cent on October 2009.

In a trading update, Independent News Media signalled that its full-year operating profit would be in line with expectations, with positive trends helped by a 1.7 per cent increase in advertising revenues and a 1.2 per cent lift in group sales. Notwithstanding its statement, the media group’s stock fell 2.3 per cent to close at 58 cent.

Two stocks to attraction some attention from investors were paper and packaging group Smurfit Kappa, which closed up 1.4 per cent at €8.09, and drinks group C&C, which closed up 1.3 per cent at €3.40.