Paddy Power Betfair dips in Dublin and London

Fears about the impact of the euro’s strength on company earnings and a mixed start to the latest reporting season left European markets trailing on Friday.

DUBLIN

Bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair slid 2.73 per cent to €83.65 after hitting what dealers said was a 52-week low of €82.09 earlier in the day. The stock has been under pressure for a number of days.

AIB was down 1.15 per cent at €4.81 on what traders described as decent volumes. Investors sold more than 4.25 million of the bank's shares in Dublin.

Ryanair, which is due to publish results for the first quarter of its financial year on Monday, was down more than 2 per cent in mid-morning trade as investors anticipate that air fares will fall this summer. However, the airline rallied and ended the day 0.58 per cent off at €18.15.

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Financial services group IFG dropped 7.37 per cent to €1.621 after it warned that restructuring and legal costs from its UK retirement planning subsidiary, James Hay, would hit profits.

News that hotel group Dalata is buying the four-star Hotel La Tour in Birmingham for €35 million had little impact on its share price, which dipped 0.4 per cent to €4.95.

LONDON

Paddy Power Betfair was down 2.14 per cent at 7,540 pence sterling in London, where the Irish bookie has its main listing, repeating the pattern seen in Dublin. It was one of the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 index .

Low-cost airline Easyjet, Irish carrier Ryanair’s biggest rival, was off 1.65 per cent at 1,312p.

Telecoms giant Vodafone pushed higher despite dipping in the first quarter as the group was held back by its under-pressure India business. Sales across the group fell 3.3 per cent to €11.47 billion in the quarter to June 30th, with revenue in India plummeting 13.9 per cent amid "continued price competition". Shares were up 1.1p to 226p.

Away from the top tier, online payments firm Paysafe was the biggest riser on the FTSE 250 after being approach by private equity giants Blackstone and CVC Partners over a possible takeover. Paysafe's largest shareholder, Old Mutual Global Investors, is recommending the offer. Shares in the firm were up nearly 7 per cent or 37p to 579p.

EUROPE

French car parts maker Valeo tumbled almost 7 per cent after it reported first half sales and earnings that fell short of market expectations, despite a strong order book.

Stripping out acquisitions and currency effects, Valeo’s €9.464 billion in revenue represented a 9 per cent gain but missed the €9.558 billion expected by analysts. Operating and net income figures also fell slightly short. The stock fell 6.94 per cent to €59.58.

German auto makers Volkswagen and Daimler fell after Speigel magazine reported that they had told regulators about decades of talks in their industry about vehicle technology that may have breached competition rules. Volkswagen closed 3.64 per cent at €137.75, Daimler was off 2.07 per cent at €62.58. Autos were Europe's worst performing sector, down 2.4 per cent overall.

German airline Lufthansa shed 2.65 per cent to close at €18.56 while rival Air France KLM dropped 6.11 per cent to €11.61. Indications of weaker than usual summer ticket prices left investors wary of airlines on Friday.

NEW YORK

US indices were lower in late morning trade on Friday and pulled back from record levels as weak earnings from industrial heavyweight General Electric weighed.

Shares of GE fell as much as 5.4 per cent to their lowest level since October 2015, as the company reported a nearly 60 per cent slump in profit and its 2017 profit forecast came in at the low end.

Visa rose 1.7 per cent after the world’s largest payments network operator raised its annual earnings forecast.

EBay fell 2.8 per cent as the company warned that adjusted profit this quarter could fall below analysts’ estimates.

Additional reporting: Agencies