Irish shares maintain growth path

THE ISEQ index of Irish shares nudged forward by another 10 points (0.33%), yesterday, to close at just under 3,100 and just about keep up its slow growth momentum from earlier in the week.

While it was a stagnant enough day for some of the traditionally big movers – DCC was down by 10c; CRH inched forward by 2c and C&C (ahead of today’s shareholder vote on the disposal of its spirits division) gained 1c – the banks had mixed fortunes.

AIB was up by 3c – or over 3% – to close at €1, on the back of ongoing speculation about the future of its Polish banking operations. Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) also enjoyed a good day, its share price rising by 10c – or 5.6% – to reach a close of €1.83.

However, Bank of Ireland fell by 1.8% – or 2c – to close at 83c.

Despite CRH’s marginal increase, the building materials and general construction stocks fared badly yesterday.

Insulation specialist Kingspan shed 24c to close at €5.99; Grafton was down 1c at €2.86, McInerney Holdings was down by over 21% at 6c and Readymix slumped 9% to close at 20c.

On a generally dull day for the ISEQ, the few bright spots were catered for by the likes of UTV Media – which rose by 8c to €1.49; Paddy Power, which was up by 43c at €26.20; Kerry Group, which gained 45c to €23.25 and Irish/Swiss bakery group, Arzyta which piled on another 68c to up its share price to €30.41.

Medical device/healthcare services company, Icon, stole the show, however, with a €1.13 – 5% – jump to €24.

Overseas, there were similarly mixed signs.

Positivity abounded in the Far East with Tokyo’s Nikkei Index gaining by nearly 2% (the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was closed due to a public holiday).

However, US markets started sluggishly, with early reversals, on the back ofless than positive dataon housing and industrial output.

In Europe, the CAC in Paris gained 0.4% to reach 3,676 points, Frankfurt’s DAX was up by around the same level at 6,191 and London’s FTSE was up at 5,238 points, after adding 0.4% during the day.