ISEQ stays in positive territory but fails to inspire confidence

DESPITE lacklustre performances across the markets yesterday the ISEQ 100 Index managed to stay in positive territory ending its first February session up a modest fraction at 0.2%.

The market got a few welcome boosts, with Ryanair up more than 3%, despite posting substantial third quarter losses of more than €100m.

Having raised its full-year outlook to a profit of between €50m and €80m, due to lower fuel costs, and cheered the market further with the promise of further substantial profits next year as travellers trade down in the recession, Ryanair’s shares got a welcome boost from the positive soundings for future earnings.

In the banks it was a mixed day with AIB putting on 8.4% to close at €1.32 a gain of 10 cent on the day.

Bank of Ireland drifted south down to close off over 3% at 63 cent.

There were several fallers as well as gainers on the day, which were spread across a variety of sectors.

International News & Media, the Tony O’Reilly led media group, fell almost 7.5% to 25 cent as the outlook for the publishing and media sectors continued to worsen.

In construction CRH, the world’s second largest builders supplier lost almost 2% to close at €17.84.

Also in that category, McInerney Properties made a modest gain of 0.8% to 0.12 cent, hardly enough to get investors terribly optimistic about the immediate outlook for the group.

Wall Street started the week lower yesterday afternoon.

Its sluggishness was attributed to investor worries over disappointing company results and the prospects of more weakness to come.

The Dow Jones was down 88 points at 7,913 while the Nasdaq was 13 points lower at 1,464.

In Europe, shares were also lower, with banks and energy stocks the biggest losers. London’s FTSE, which slumped 2.2% to 4,060 at one point, was down 1.73% in late trading.

Barclays was the worst performer after credit ratings agency Moody’s downgraded its long-term ratings on the bank.

Moody’s said it fears further “significant” credit-related write-downs and rising impairments in Britain.

Other heavy fallers included HSBC of more than 5% and Standard Life down more than 7% on the day. The Paris CAC slumped 2.5% to 2,899, while the Frankfurt DAX dropped 2% to 4,251.