Another positive day for financial shares

FINANCIAL stocks had a second consecutive positive day’s trading yesterday, boosted by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan’s comments – on Monday – that the capital requirement issues at the main banks will be fully addressed, one way or the other, during the first three months of this year.

Following respective gains of 15c and 20c on Monday, AIB and Bank of Ireland were up by a further 16c (11.63%) and 1c (0.5%), respectively yesterday. AIB closed at €1.51 and Bank of Ireland reached a price of €1.53 by closing bell. Irish Life & Permanent &followed its 20c gain on Monday with a 2.77%, 10c, loss yesterday to close the day back down at €3.40.

The ISEQ managed to keep its collective head above the 3,000 point mark; albeit dipping slightly by 26 points to close at 3,071 points – representing a slight daily loss of 0.85%. The Dublin market had a poor final quarter to last year, falling by 11.1% between October and the end of December; driven by a tough few months for the banking stocks. However, for 2009 as a whole, the ISEQ was up by 27% – the third consecutive year of overall climbs.

Elsewhere on the ISEQ, yesterday building materials giant CRH slumped by 75c – or 3.85% – to €18.75 on the back of it forecasting a 55% drop in its full year pre-tax profits for 2009 to €750m. Kerry Group fell by 13c to €21.60; Irish Continental Group (ICG) was up by 25c at €14.50 and Paddy Power gained 44c to €25.39. The aviation stocks had differing fortunes; with Aer Lingus rising by 4c to 68c and Ryanair falling by 7c to close at €3.46.

In overseas markets, early new year gains were continued in the main – in Europe Paris’ CAC was down by one point at just over 4,000 points and the DAX in Frankfurt was down by 16 points at just over 6,000 points; but London’s FTSE was up by 0.4% at just over 5,500 points.