Business

Global stocks jump ahead of raft of central bank meetings

Euronext Dublin up marginally at close of business on muted day for investors following St Patrick’s Day celebration

Traders at work in the New York Stock Exchange. Wall Street’s main indexes rose, with a rally in megacap growth stocks such as Alphabet and Tesla supporting a sharp recovery in the tech-laden Nasdaq ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s meeting this week. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty

Colin Gleeson
Mon Mar 18 2024 - 18:33

Global stocks jumped on Monday while Treasury yields crept higher as investors looked ahead to a raft of central bank meetings this week that could see the end of free money in Japan and a blueprint for US rate cuts this year.

Dublin

Euronext Dublin was up marginally at close of business on what was a muted day for investors following the St Patrick’s Day holiday.

There were just light volumes traded, but the most significant move of the day was at AIB, which traded up 3 per cent. Its peer Bank of Ireland climbed 11 basis points.

Among the housebuilders, Cairn Homes was up just over 1 per cent at the end of the day’s trading.

READ MORE

Elsewhere, agriservices group Origin Enterprises was down 1.8 per cent as it gave back some of the gains it made on Friday. The group reported in recent weeks that revenue fell almost 28 per cent in the first half of its 2024 financial year amid a correction in global feed and fertiliser pricing.

Finally, Ires Reit – the biggest landlord in the State, finished the day up 25 basis points. The move followed news last week that US property specialist Starwood Capital has increased its stake in the company to 1.9 per cent.

The company has also named Eddie Byrne, a former executive with US investment firm Lone Star and Anglo Irish Bank, as its next chief executive.

London

The FTSE 100 had a quiet day, finishing flat as it settled down after hitting its highest point in eight months last week.

It came as falls among some of the water companies – Severn Trent and United Utilities – were offset partly by rises for cigarette companies Imperial Brands and British American Tobacco.

Shares in Currys rose 5.42 per cent after the electronics retailer said it thinks profit will be higher than previously signalled.

Elsewhere shares in Marshalls dropped 8.53 per cent after the building materials company downgraded its forecasts for the year.

It said the market was likely to stay “subdued” in the first half of this year and the recovery would be slower than previously thought.

Europe

Stocks edged lower on the continent, with investors wary of taking the index much higher before this week’s interest rate decisions in the United States, Britain and Japan.

The Stoxx 600 Index was down 0.1 per cent by the close, with telecom and consumer products stocks underperforming. Autos and rate-sensitive sector real estate gained. Haleon fell after Pfizer said it planned to sell about £2 billion (€2.3 billion) of its shares.

The main regional benchmark capped its eighth weekly gain in a row on Friday, the longest such streak since 2018, and investors are looking for signs of resistance. Meanwhile, Frankfurt’s Dax index rose fell 0.02 per cent, while the Cac 40 in Paris had closed down 0.2 per cent.

New York

Wall Street’s main indexes rose, with a rally in megacap growth stocks such as Alphabet and Tesla supporting a sharp recovery in the tech-laden Nasdaq ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s meeting this week.

Most market-leading growth stocks rallied, with Alphabet gaining 6.7 per cent after a media report that Apple is in talks to build Google’s Gemini AI engine into the iPhone.

The communication services sector jumped 3.6 per cent, leading gains among the 11 big S&P 500 sectors.

Tesla rose 6.7 per cent after the electric carmaker said it would increase the price of its Model Y EVs in some European countries by about €2,000 or its equivalent in local currencies.

Focus will also be on AI-darling , which kicks off its annual developer conference, with investors focused on new chip announcements from chief executive Jensen Huang in an afternoon keynote address. The chipmaker climbed 1.2 per cent.

Peers Micron Technology and Intel added 1.5 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor index climbed 0.5 per cent. – Additional reporting: agencies

Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson is an Irish Times reporter

LATEST STORIES