ISEQ provides a glimmer of good news
There’s been little good news for investors in the Irish stock market in the last 18 months. The Dublin exchange saw a net loss of €61 billion last year. While most people in this country don’t invest directly in the ISE they participate through their pension funds which are down by an average of 30 per cent in the last 12 months (new figures on pension performance are expected later in the day).
We should all be buoyed by the news that the ISE had its second best month ever in April with the ISEQ index gaining 19.5 per cent (albeit off a dreadful base). At the time of writing it’s up another 5 per cent today.
A research note from Davy says that “a jump of 9.3% in the final two days of April capped a great month for the ISEQ. The index is now well into positive territory year-to-date (up 11.9%)”. The analysts note that Irish stocks outperformed the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index by 5.8 per cent and are ahead 12.4 per cent so far this year.
The finance and banking stocks led the charge in April gaining 53.4 per cent, following a 69 per cent gain in March. Davy notes that ”encouragingly, gains were evident right across the market, with 48 of the ISEQ’s 59 constituents advancing on the month”. They believe the market bounce globally was driven by a better-than-expected earnings season in the US, combined with some encouraging economic indicators.
