Bank of Ireland unscathed following tracker update

Bank of Ireland traded in line with the market on Friday despite the news 24 hours earlier that a further 6,000 customers had been affected by the tracker mortgage scandal.

Dublin

Volumes on the Irish Stock Exchange were below average on Friday, with the market a bit weaker.

IFG Group, the Dublin-headquartered but UK-focused financial services company, issued a trading update that said its total assets under administration and advice had topped £30 billion.

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The group said it continued to perform in line with expectations in the ten months to the end of October. The stock was “relatively quiet”, an analyst with Davy said later, ending the day up about 2.7 per cent. It had earlier been trading up about 4 per cent.

Bank of Ireland performed largely in line with the market, down 0.5 per cent, despite a statement on Thursday revealing that an additional 6,000 customers were now in line for compensation over the tracker mortgage scandal.

“There was notable news regarding the bank in the tracker mortgage statement last night, but it traded largely in line with the market,” said the analyst.

Elsewhere, building materials group CRH was marginally weaker, down 0.5 per cent in line with the market, while there was little volume.

Low budget airline Ryanair was a little weaker, giving up some ground but recovered towards the end of the day, finishing down 0.8 per cent.

“There’s a bit of red across the board, but it’s the same for everybody really,” said the analyst. “There wasn’t a lot of activity.”

London

British shares could not shake a downbeat mood and suffered their biggest weekly drop in two months as retail stocks continued to weigh, with Burberry and Bunzl leading losses.

Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.7 per cent, sliding for the second day alongside broad weakness in European trading. It ended the week with its heaviest loss in two months.

Industrials and construction stocks piled pressure on the index, tracking a slide in these sectors across Europe. They have been among the strongest drivers of stock market gains in the past months.

Bunzl dropped 6.3 per cent, the weakest-performing large-cap stock, after a note from Morgan Stanley said the retail distributor’s shares were not yet reflecting potential disruption from Amazon Business.

A survey showed British shops suffered their worst October for sales in a decade, sending M&S and Primark owner ABF down 1.5 to 1.8 per cent. Burberry sank for a second day, extending Thursday's sharp results-driven losses, after no fewer than five brokers cut their price target on the stock.

Energy providers Centrica and SSE, which have been under pressure due to the government's plan to cap prices on energy, fell 1.6 to 2.4 per cent.

Europe

Carmakers led the Stoxx Europe 600 Index to its biggest two-day drop since August, with most industry sectors declining.

Miners bucked the trend as industrial-metal prices rose and ArcelorMittal NV earnings beat estimates.

Meanwhile, bunds also contributed to the slide in European debt as traders judged that the recent rally - which came on the heels of the European Central Bank’s latest policy meeting last month - was overdone.

German 10-year bund yields had dropped about 15 basis points since the ECB announced its tapering plan before the sell-off began on Thursday.

New York

The US dollar edged lower on signs that tax reforms could be delayed after Senate Republicans offered a plan that differed significantly from the House of Representatives’ version.

MSCI’s global stock index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, declined 0.2 per cent, slipping further from a record level. On Thursday, the global index fell 0.4 per cent following 10 straight days of gains.

All three major indexes were on track to end lower for the week, with the S&P and the Dow Jones on track to post weekly losses after eight straight weeks of gains.

Shares of Nvidia were up 4.4 per cent after the chipmaker's revenue forecast for the current quarter topped estimates. Walt Disney rose 2.3 per cent as the promise of a new film trilogy overshadowed weak quarterly results and struggles at the media company.

(Additional reporting: agencies)