Positive day’s trading sees ISEQ climb back to 2,000-point mark

A POSITIVE day’s trading in Dublin provided a much-needed shot in the arm for the ISEQ yesterday — pushing it back up above the 2,000-point mark.

Yesterday’s 4.28% rise came on the back of a busy day of financial reporting amongst listed companies.

A 21% rise — before exceptional charges — at food group Glanbia boosted its share price by 29c to e2.13.

However, FBD Insurance fell by 40c to e6.70, after it reported a pre-tax loss of e38.6m for its latest financial year.

Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) was, understandably, the big communicator yesterday — reporting a 42% fall in group operating profit for 2008 to e341 million.

However, its share price was back up nudging the e1 mark, at 91c (a 26.9%, or 19c, daily rise) after management communicated a confident enough outlook and vowed that it would face-up to the consequences of its controversial deposits with Anglo Irish Bank.

On a mixed day’s trading for the Irish banks, AIB was up by 1c to 81c and Bank of Ireland fell by the same amount to 18c. Bank of Ireland also announced yesterday that it will hold an extraordinary general meeting on March 27 for shareholders to vote on the Government’s e3.5bn recapitalisation plan for the bank.

Elsewhere on the ISEQ, it was another good day for Smurfit Kappa, up another 6c at e1.46; building materials group Grafton, which was up by 14c at e1.44; and drinks group C&C, which gained another 12c to close at e1.11.

Ryanair gained 25c to close at e3.08.

London’s FTSE index meanwhile, followed hitting a six-year low earlier in the week to bounce back up by 4%; while the CAC in Paris was up by 4.7% and Germany’s DAX rose by nearly 6%.

There were also good early gains in the US markets as British prime minister Gordon Brown addressed the US House of Congress and called on Washington to lead the battle against global recession.