Bank of Ireland and Ryanair pull ‘resilient’ Irish market up

The wobbles facing stock markets earlier in the week looked firmly in the past on Friday as hopes of economic recovery buoyed stocks.

Dublin

Euronext Dublin finished the day up 1.3 per cent on Friday, driven mainly by Ryanair and the banks.

“It was a very strong day again after yesterday’s sell-off,” noted a trader. “The market is very resilient at the moment.”

Among the main movers was Ryanair, which was up 2.5 per cent ahead of full-year results on Monday. "Stock traded high in anticipation of those," said a trader.

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Pharma and medtech group Uniphar also enjoyed a strong performance, ending the day up 3.8 per cent. "There is very strong momentum behind that stock at the moment and it's making all-time highs," according to a trader.

Building materials group CRH is also edging towards all-time highs, according to the same trader: "US peers were strong overnight, and US housing and highway spend, as well as the stimulus is all feeding into the stock," he said.

“It’s edging back towards all-time highs of €42.57. It closed at €41.88 so not far off that.”

Elsewhere, Bank of Ireland was up 10 per cent, continuing its very strong run, while AIB was up 1.5 per cent.

London

The FTSE 100 rose, supported by banks and energy stocks but clocked its worst weekly performance since February on inflation worries, while Sanne Group topped the mid-cap index after rejecting a $1.90 billion buyout proposal.

The blue-chip index rose 1.2 per cent, with banks and oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell being the biggest boosts to the index. The index is down 1.2 per cent for the week, its biggest weekly fall since February.

After rising nearly 11 per cent this year on reopening optimism, the FTSE 100 has pared some of those gains in the last few sessions on worries that central banks might tighten their ultra-loose monetary policies sooner than expected to curb inflation.

The domestically focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index advanced 1.2 per cent. Software company Sage Group added 3.8 per cent after reporting strong first-half organic recurring revenue and forecasting annual growth at the top end of its 3 per cent to 5 per cent range.

Europe

The German Dax 30 closed up 1.43 per cent and the French Cac 40 was up 1.54 per cent.

Germany’s benchmark Bund yield steadied but was still on track for its biggest weekly rise since February.

European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras said that despite signs that financial markets were predicting inflation, Europe is not facing the kind of inflation concerns seen in the United States and that current monetary policy is appropriate.

As core euro zone yields edged down, Italy’s yields climbed higher, with the 10-year yield reaching 1.091 per cent, its highest since September. It was up 16.5 basis points in the week, setting its biggest weekly rise since April 2020.

New York

US stocks rose with broad-based gains, as investors looked at economic recovery prospects after worries about a prolonged period of inflation sparked a volatile week of trading.

Futures pared some gains after data showed US retail sales unexpectedly stalled in April, as a boost from stimulus checks faded, but an acceleration is likely in the coming months amid record savings and a reopening economy.

All 11 major S&P sectors were higher, with energy leading gains as oil prices gained ground. The CBOE volatility index, a measure of investors’ anxiety, slipped to 19.55 after spiking to a more than two-month high earlier this week.

Chip stocks helped the technology sector provide the biggest boost to the S&P 500.

Mega-cap growth stocks, which were beaten down this week on concerns over their lofty valuations, led gains in early trading with Apple, Amazon.com and Microsoft gaining about 1 per cent each, and Tesla adding 2.3 per cent.

Disappointing subscriber additions for Walt Disney's namesake streaming service overshadowed better-than-expected overall profits, driving down shares of the entertainment company by 3.4 per cent.

– Additional reporting: Agencies