Business

Global markets up marginally as investors await inflation data

Bank of Ireland mounted a recovery from Monday’s losses as it ended the day up 2.5%, albeit on lighter volumes

Traders are waiting for US inflation data due later this week. Photograph: Getty Images

Colin Gleeson
Tue Feb 27 2024 - 18:16

Global markets gained very slightly on Tuesday as investors weighed the outlook for central bank rate cuts after the latest batch of economic data and ahead of key US inflation data due out later in the week.

Dublin

Euronext Dublin, as the Irish stock exchange is known, climbed 0.4 per cent at close of business, which was largely in line with its international peers.

Bank of Ireland mounted a recovery from Monday’s losses as it ended the day up 2.5 per cent, albeit on lighter volumes compared to the day before. Peer AIB rose about 1.5 per cent.

Ryanair agreed to a deal with On the Beach to list its flights on the holiday platform, drawing a line under a feud between the two travel companies. Its share price climbed 0.3 per cent.

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Healthcare services company Uniphar finished the day down 0.7 per cent on low volume after it reported that revenue increased over the past year, gaining more than 23 per cent to €2.6 billion.

Elsewhere, wind and solar energy group Greencoat Renewables climbed 2.5 per cent.

A trader pointed out that investors may be keeping their powder dry ahead of a busy couple of days of results for Irish companies.

London

The FTSE 100 was down 0.02 per cent as it lagged European peers as reports of a new vaping tax weighed on Imperial Brands, while higher oil prices helped lift shares in mining giants.

Imperial Brands was the biggest faller of the day with its share price down by about 5 per cent amid reports that the UK Government is considering announcing a new tax on vapes at the Budget announcement next week.

Meanwhile, shares in Anglo American, Antofagasta and Endeavour Mining moved higher as oil prices rose for another day.

In other company news, shares in On the Beach soared 13.44 per cent after the business announced the deal to resolve the long-running feud with Ryanair.

Elsewhere, shares in fund manager Abrdn fell 3.3 per cent, even though the business said that it had managed to shrink its pretax loss from more than half a billion pounds to just £6 million (€7 million) last year.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Vodafone, up 2.32p to 68.4p; Flutter Entertainment, up 385p to 17,080p; Anglo American, up 35.8p to 1,762.4p; SSE, up 30p to 1,594p; and Burberry, up 24.5p to 1,311.5p.

The biggest fallers were Imperial Brands, down 88p to 1,730.5p; Croda, down 155p to 4,748p; Unilever, down 80.5p to 3,915.5p; Informa, down 15.6p to 810.2p; and Frasers, down 15.5p to 816p.

Europe

Elsewhere in European markets, stock indexes struggled for direction. Germany’s Dax was up 0.76 per cent and France’s Cac 40 closed 0.23 per cent higher.

MSCI’s Europe index was up 0.2 per cent, while the pan-European Stoxx 600 was flat.

New York

Wall Street’s main indexes were mixed as investors awaited a crucial inflation report and other economic data that would offer further clues on the timing of rate cuts from the Federal Reserve and guide investor expectations.

At 11.38am eastern time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.46 per cent; the S&P 500 was down 0.09 per cent; and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.11 per cent.

Seven of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were in the red, led by energy, which slipped 0.4 per cent, while utilities were top gainers with an advance of 1.5 per cent. The small-cap Russell 2000 index rose 1.3 per cent.

Aiding the tech-heavy Nasdaq, Tesla outperformed megacap peers with a 1.4 per cent rise.

Viking Therapeutics surged 93.7 per cent after its experimental drug to treat obesity helped patients achieve “significant” weight loss in a mid-stage study.

US drugmaker Amgen, which is also developing a weight-loss drug, dropped 2.6 per cent, pressuring the Dow Jones.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings advanced 18.3 per cent as it forecast first-quarter profit above Wall Street estimates. – Additional reporting: Agencies

Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson is an Irish Times reporter

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