ISEQ regains €2bn since new year with a 7% rise

THE ISEQ’s positive start to 2009 continued yesterday with a 3.4% rise, meaning that the Dublin market is up by nearly 7% already since the turn of the year.

Tue, 06 Jan, 2009 - 00:00

This contrasts sharply with last month with December’s decline of 7.7%, bringing 2008’s total fall in value to 66.2%, representing the Irish market’s worst ever annual performance.

Amongst the notable climbers yesterday, was Anglo Irish Bank — which gained 14.14% — or 3c — to close at 22c. Bank of Ireland also gained 3c yesterday, to close at 92c. AIB was up by 3.51% — or 6c — at €1.77.

On a good day for the Irish banking stocks, Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) gained the most, rising by 13c — or 8.12% — to €1.73.

FBD Insurance was a rare red figure, yesterday, dropping by 3.87% — or 30c — to €7.45.

Other negative facing stocks were Norkom — down by 2c at 53c — and Paddy Power, which slipped by 5c to close at €13.30.

But, elsewhere there were strong gains for the Tralee-based food group, Kerry (up 35c to €13.55); CRH (up 2.17% — or 40c — at €18.80); building materials/DIY group, Grafton (up by nearly 7%, or 16c, to €2.43); drug group Elan up by 54c to €5.07; Glanbia (up 16c to €2.22); and Tullow Oil, which rose by a further 11.26% — or 74c — to €7.31. Fruit distributor, Fyffes gained 1c to close at 26c, while there were conflicting fortunes for the two aviation stocks — Aer Lingus falling by 1c to €1.50 and Ryanair up by 9c to €3.24. Distribution group, DCC gained 40c — a 3.77% push — to close at €11, on the back of completing another bolt-on acquisition to its energy division in Britain.

The overall growth in the ISEQ yesterday amounted to 82.38 points, bringing it to just under 2,502. In essence, just over €2 billion has been added to the combined value of Irish shares since this year’s trading got underway at the end of last week.

Dublin led the way for Europe’s markets yesterday. London’s FTSE was up by 0.4% to 4,580 points, the CAC in Paris was up by 0.3% to 3,360 and Frankfurt’s DAX gained 0.2% to reach 4,984 points.