ISEQ recovers lost ground after €3bn dip
Tellingly, each of the main financial stocks – AIB, Bank of Ireland and Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) – showed significant signs of recovery.
On a wider basis, the ISEQ climbed by 2.73% to 2,937 points; after its 6.5% drop on Wednesday, which had dragged it down to a two-month low. The overall rise yesterday also marked the first day this week that the ISEQ actually managed to close on a positive note.
AIB was back up by 5.41% (or 10c in monetary terms) to €1.95; following its previous day 25c/12% fall. Bank of Ireland was the biggest mover of the banking stocks, with a near 11% rebound, reclaiming 18c to reach a closing price of €1.83. It had plunged by 25% to €1.65 on Wednesday. &IL&P, meanwhile, recovered 30c to close at €5.10, following on from its 57c fall the previous day.
Elsewhere, both aviation stocks crept upwards – Aer Lingus by 2c to 60c and Ryanair by 1c to €2.98.
Bakery group, Aryzta gained €1.17 to climb to €27; CRH continued its see-saw week by climbing 54c to €17.60; Grafton Group was up by 28c at €3.46; DCC gained 32c to reach €18; IFG was up by 7c at €1.37; Smurfit Kappa rose by 35c to €5.35; and Kerry Group continued a solid week to close at €20.56 – representing a daily rise of 65c for the food group.
The ISEQ certainly wasn’t unique in its recovery, yesterday. Latest data from the US showed that its economy had just recorded its strongest growth in two years pulled both the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq up by 1.6%. Each of the main European exchanges were also back up – the FTSE in London regaining 1.1% to close at 5,138 points (helped in no small part by a 7.5% jump for Lloyds Banking Group); Frankfurt’s DAX climbing 1.7% to close at 5,587 points; and Paris’ CAC rising by 1.4% to 3,714 points.
Earlier, Tokyo’s Nikkei index suffered its third consecutive day of downward movement, dropping by 1.8% to a close of 9,891.
