Kingspan and Uniphar lead Iseq 20 losers in 2022 as equities plummet globally

Kingspan and Uniphar, the two best-performing stocks on the Iseq 20 last year, are on course to become the biggest losers on the Irish shares index in 2022, as global markets were beset by concerns over inflation, war in Ukraine, rising interest rates and recession threats.

The Iseq 20 index has declined by 16.8 per cent during 2022, with trading for the year set to wind up at lunchtime on Friday, while the wider Iseq All Share index has declined by 15 per cent. The MSCI All Country World Index has fallen by nearly 20 per cent.

Insulation giant Kingspan has lost 51 per cent of its value in 2022. The company’s stock started to decline from the outset of the year as investors became increasingly worried about inflation and the global economy.

It took a hammering in June when warned that “the mood in most end markets” was deteriorating, before Kingspan highlighted in November that there was a “lack of visibility beyond the next short period” for demand, even though an 18-month-long surge in raw material prices was showing signs of peaking.

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Uniphar, the healthcare services group, declined by 38.5 per cent over the course of this year to hand back most of its gains from 2022, even as it continued to deliver strong earnings growth fuelled by acquisitions. Still, its dealmaking streak hit a bump earlier this month with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission blocking its planned purchase of Irish pharmacy solutions firm NaviCorp. The deal was estimated to be worth about €60 million.

A look ahead to 2023

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Property-related stocks were also out of favour in a rising rates environment, with Ires Reit, the State’s largest private residential landlord, declining 34.4 per cent, even as it became the sole remaining Irish real-estate investment trust. Hibernia Reit was acquired for €1.1 billion in June by Brookfield Asset Management. Home builder Glenveagh Properties dropped 31 per cent.

Elsewhere, Smurfit Kappa, whose shares had surged in recent years as Covid accelerated an ongoing rise in ecommerce and sustainable packaging, went into reverse in 2022, declining almost 28 per cent, as it grappled with rising input costs and looming recession on both sides of the Atlantic.

Bucking the trend, Bank of Ireland soared almost 79 per cent, as banks’ income benefited from rising official interest rates and investors continued to cheer the imminent departure of Ulster Bank and KBC Ireland from the market and the carving up of their loan books between remaining banks.

The European Central Bank moved its deposit rate from minus 0.5 per cent to 2 per cent in the past six months, while its main lending rate jumped to 2.5 per cent.

AIB added more than 69 per cent over the course of the year, while Permanent TSB advanced by over 14 per cent.

Meanwhile, agri-services company Origin Enterprises gained 34.2 per cent, while Malin Corporation, the life sciences investment company, edged 8 per cent higher.

The best-performing stock on the wider Iseq was Corre Energy, which soared 142 per cent, as investor interest in the developer of underground renewable energy storage facilities was turbocharged at a time of heightened energy market volatility.