It was a quiet day on the Irish market today, with low trading volumes across the board. Overall, the market fell back by just 19.1 points, or 0.6 per cent, to close down at 3,010.39, with the majority of stocks holding onto their gains from Friday’s rally.
The big story on the day was Ryanair's half-year results, which showed that profits fell by 47 per cent in the first half of the financial year, mainly due to a doubling in the price of oil. However, with oil prices continuing to fall, analysts expect the airline's profits to surpass expectations next year, and so the market responded positively to the results, with Ryanair's share price increasing by 8 cent, or 2.9 per cent, to €2.83.
Independent News and Media consolidated its gains from Friday, adding 2 cent, or 3.1 per cent, to climb to €0.66, on the back of speculation that it would sell its loss-making London Independent newspaper and its Sunday sister title.
Elsewhere, mid-cap stocks pushed ahead, with construction stocks Grafton Group and Kingspan both closing up. Grafton added 15 cent, or 6.4 per cent, to finish up at €2.50, while Kingspan advanced by 25 cent, or 5.6 per cent, to close up at €4.75.
Financials had a mixed day. Ahead of its trading update this week, Allied Irish Bank was pretty flat on the day, closing down marginally by 1 cent, or 0.2 per cent, at €4.20, while the other bank stocks gave up some of their gains from last week.
Anglo Irish Bank was the worst performer, losing 37 cent, or 14.8 per cent, to finish the day down at €2.13, while Irish Life & Permanent also suffered, declining by 35 cent, or 12.9 per cent, to close down at €2.35. Bank of Ireland gave up 20 cent, or 8.7 per cent, to fall back to €2.10.
Food stocks Aryzta and Total Produce suffered on the back of poor results from a European peer, with Aryzta falling by €1.22, or 4.4 per cent, to €26.75 and Total Produce slipping back by 2 cent, or 6.7 per cent, to €0.28.
Across Europe, banks dominated the agenda, although the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 recorded its longest rally in a year, as it rose for a fifth day in a row, closing up by 0.4 per cent at 222.96.
In Germany, Commerzbank posted a third quarter net loss of €285 million, and said it would take an €8.2 billion capital injection from the state and another €15 billion to secure refinancing. The DAX closed up by 0.7 per cent, while in France, Societe Generale reported an 83.7 per cent drop in third-quarter net profit, and the CAC 40 finished the day up by 1 per cent.
Britain's largest home lender, HBOS, revealed a significant increase in its bad debt charge, which grew to over £5 billion for the first nine months of the year, but its share price was boosted by speculation of a rival bidder for the bank. Overall, the FTSE 100 closed up 1 per cent.
In the US, stocks swung in both directions, as positive news such as declining borrowing rates – the dollar Libor rate dropped 17 basis points to 2.86 per cent, the lowest level since the collapse of Lehman Brothers – was countered by negative data such as the announcement that manufacturing is declining at its fastest pace in 26 yearas. By 10.44 am, the S&P 500 had fallen back by 2.01 points, or 0.2 per cent to 966.74, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average had added 0.4 point to 9,325.41.
