Ryanair’s sharp rise helps ISEQ Index to rally

IN A mixed day for the markets the ISEQ Index rose 1.38% driven by good performances from some of the banks as well as a sharp rise in Ryanair.

Fri, 06 Jun, 2008 - 01:00

The banks, including Anglo, AIB, Bank of Ireland, construction group CRH and Ryanair were the most heavily traded shares on the day.

Of those, Bank of Ireland was the only share to record a decline, down 1.31% to €7.50. Anglo rose 2.22% to end the day at €7.86 while Ryanair rose sharply to end up 6.8% at €3.23.

CRH also made some ground and rose 3.1% to €23.26 despite the sorry state of the US construction sector, one of its key markets.

The warning from the ECB that it might raise rates next month that soured sentiment in mainland Europe and in afternoon trading the major markets lost marginally, having been slightly ahead in early trading.

London ended the day on a positive note after a strong start on Wall Street and good gains for the banks as worries about their rights issues eased.

The FTSE 100 was down 0.1% after shedding 1.5% on Wednesday to hit its lowest closing level since mid-April, and its first sub-6,000 close since then.

While the Bank of England and ECB both left interest rates unchanged at 5% and 4% respectively, as the day wore on investors appeared to be more concerned about looming cash calls.

HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland rose while their mid-cap peer Bradford and Bingley topped the FTSE 250.

Market gossip was that RBS, where the rights issue closes today, has seen a 95% take up. US broker Citigroup also helped RBS by raising it to “buy” from “hold”, saying the bank’s capital position was now better than most of its peers.

In France the Paris CAC was off slightly at 0.3% while Frankfurt’s DAX was down 0.2%.

One leading Scottish investor with about €1 billion under management Colin McLean of SVM Asset Management said it was still difficult to say the markets were over the worst.

Too many uncertainties about the quality of banking assets still dog the markets, he said.

He expects a few more quarters of bad news from banks on the subprime front which could push markets back significantly from present levels in the current year.