Ryanair gets trading year off to a flying start

Ryanair

got off to a flying start in 2015 with its announcement that passenger numbers in December were 1 million greater than the 5.02 million that used the airline’s services in the same month last year. The load factor, or measure of seats used per flight, rose to 88 per cent, from 81 per cent for the same month in 2013.

Elsewhere the weakening price for fossil fuels, as well as ongoing worries about Greece caused investors to fret, and prices to fall.

The Iseq index of Irish shares closed at 5,165.01, a drop of 1.22 per cent. DUBLIN The good news from Ryanair sent its share price up 3 per cent in the morning, the price softened a bit as the day wore on and finished at €9.91, a rise of 0.93 per cent. That still meant it was one of the few shares to end the day in positive territory. One of its companions there was C&C, which finished the day at €3.69, a rise of 1.34 per cent.

Bank of Ireland announced it was going to reduce interest on fixed-rate mortgages, while keeping the variable rates as they were. The share closed at €0.30, a drop of 2.84 per cent.

CRH closed at €19.20, a fall of 2.49 per cent, while Aer Lingus fell as good 5.88 per cent, to €2.16.

ESM-quoted Dalata Hotel Group held an EGM in Dublin at which shareholders supported the acquisition of nine hotels from the Moran Bewleys group, in a deal worth €455 million. The hotel group closed at €2.90, a fall of 0.69 per cent.

LONDON The FTSE 100 Index tumbled on the back of a sliding oil price and renewed worries over whether Greece will fall out of the euro.

The FTSE 100 Index fell by 2 per cent or 130.6 points to 6417.2. The casualties included BP, which dropped by 5 per cent or 20.75p at 389.7p, whilst Royal Dutch Shell was 107p lower at 2128.5p and BHP Billiton fell 61.5p to 1316.5p.

Oil and gas services firm Weir posted the biggest decline in the top flight with a drop of more than 6 per cent, off 119p to 1764p.

The continued fall in the price of oil caused cruise ship operator Carnival to rise 50p at 2980p, though Thomson owner TUI slipped 1p to 1088p.

A big week for retail stocks started with Marks & Spencer on the back foot after broker Societe Generale removed its buy rating on the chain.

Shares in M&S were more than 4 per cent lower, off 20.3p at 456.8p. Supermarket chain Morrisons fell 6.7p to 176.5p and Sainsbury's dropped 9.9p to 233.5p. EUROPE The euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 fell 3.7 per cent, the biggest one-day percentage drop since late 2011. Greece's ATG fell 5.6 per cent, with National Bank, Bank of Piraeus and Alpha Bank slipping 5.2 to 7.4 per cent.

Italy’s FTSE MIB and Spain’s IBEX fell 4.9 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively, while the DAX and the CAC 40 were down 2.0 to 3.3 per cent.

The travel and leisure index, down 0.7 per cent, outperformed on expectations that cheaper oil and a weaker euro would help the companies.

Among other movers, Danish television and sound system manufacturer Bang & Olufsen rose 3.6 per cent after saying it would be prepared to look at any takeover approaches it received after lowering its profit guidance last month. NEW YORK US stocks also fell, sending the Standard and Poor's 500 Index toward its first four-day stretch of losses in 13 months.

Exxon Mobil lost 3 per cent and Chevron retreated 4 per cent. Transocean plunged 8.4 per cent. Caterpillar tumbled 4.5 per cent.

The SandP 500 slipped 1.6 per cent to 2,024.65 dropping below its average price for the past 50 days for the first time since December 17th.

Alcoa unofficially starts the earnings season when it reports fourth-quarter results on January 12th. (Additional reporting PA, Reuters, Bloomberg)