European shares edged higher while US equities hovered near all-time highs on Tuesday as hopes for diplomatic efforts to revive energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz sent oil prices lower.
Dublin
Irish shares continued to add momentum, with the Iseq index finishing the session up by almost 0.8 per cent on Tuesday after Monday’s 0.9 per cent gain.
Ryanair pushed the index higher, advancing by more than 3 per cent, tracking a trend in European airlines as global oil prices retreated below $100 per barrel.
Glanbia also recovered some ground lost last week, rising by 3.6 per cent to €19.96 per share.
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Banks, meanwhile, slipped in line with their European peers. AIB fell by 0.5 per cent to close at €11.61 per share while Bank of Ireland dipped by 1.9 per cent to €19.95.
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Housebuilders Cairn Homes and Glenveagh also finished in green, advancing by 0.6 per cent and 1.5 per cent to €2.71 and €2.36 per share, respectively.
London
Britain’s main share indices were little changed, with the FTSE 100 down by 0.3 per cent, while the mid-cap FTSE rose by almost 0.2 per cent.
Bank shares gave back much of Monday’s gains, weighing somewhat on the blue-chip index. Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest Group were all down by between 1.2 per cent and 2 per cent.
Energy stocks struggled for direction. BP finished the session down 0.1 per cent, while Shell advanced by 0.6 per cent, despite being down by as much as 2.2 per cent earlier, tracking a fall in crude prices.
Defensive consumer stocks offered support to the main index, with British American Tobacco and Unilever rising about 1 per cent each.
Among individual stocks, JD Sports surged by 6.4 per cent after inking a franchise deal to enter the Mexican market.
Smiths Group shares advanced 5.4 per cent after the engineering firm beat expectations with its full-year operating profit and launched a process to sell its US asbestos liability.
Europe
European shares eked out modest gains in choppy trading, with the blue-chip Stoxx 100 index adding a little under 0.1 per cent, while the pan-European Stoxx 600 rose by 0.2 per cent.
European energy stocks shed 0.5 per cent, tracking a dip in oil prices after Kyodo News reported that Iran offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days.
Insurance shares were among the top decliners, pressured by losses in ASR Nederland and Axa.
Retail shares were a bright spot, boosted by a 12.4 per cent gain in Kingfisher after the European home improvement retailer raised its full-year profit guidance after reporting a 9.9 per cent increase for the first half of the year.
New York
The tech-heavy Nasdaq hit an intraday record high for the first time since June, while oil prices hit two-week lows as supply showed signs of improving in the Middle East.
Tech stocks reclaimed the spotlight as artificial intelligence (AI) demand showed no signs of abating and corporate earnings stayed resilient.
The Nasdaq Composite was up by 0.4 per cent, while the S&P 500 was roughly flat and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.4 per cent.
Stocks were already on a firm footing thanks to the viral popularity of Meta Platforms’ Muse AI assistant that launched two weeks ago, which sent the company’s stock soaring on Monday and revived enthusiasm for the tech sector after grim warnings from AI chief executives a week earlier. The tech giant’s shares added another 0.9 per cent on Tuesday.
Nvidia advanced by 0.5 per cent, Tesla edged 0.4 per cent higher, while Amazon and Microsoft reversed course, falling by around 1.3 per cent each. – Additional reporting: Bloomberg/Reuters
