DUBLIN REPORT: Iseq: 3,292.19 (+47) Settlement date: April 9THBANK OF Ireland was the star performer when the Irish stock market reopened yesterday after the bank holiday break.
The banking stock’s US line had found favour with investors on Monday, bouncing 9 per cent. Although it opened low on the Dublin market yesterday, Bank of Ireland found its footing again once the US market reopened after lunch. Over the course of the afternoon session, it jumped from €1.65 to €1.80, and over the whole day it was up more than 12 per cent, or 20 cent.
There was nothing specific prompting this rise, one trader said, but a lot of the uncertainties, (such as the haircut on its loans being transferred to Nama) are now out of the way. Investors may also be positioning themselves ahead of an imminent rights issue, he speculated.
After trading in a tight range of €1.20 to €1.25, AIB – which transferred its first tranche of loans to Nama yesterday – managed to gain just over 4 per cent, or 5 cent, to close at €1.25.
Meanwhile its US subsidiary M&T Bank made strong gains yesterday on the back of expectations that AIB will be obliged to sell its stake in the bank to raise extra capital.
After a decent move in the morning, no-frills airline Ryanair ran out of steam towards the end of the day and finished pretty much flat at €3.97.
Although it traded up to €19.24 at one point yesterday, cement giant CRH slipped back down to just under €19.11 by the close, still a gain of 20 cent. Stocks in the construction sector have been strong since the US released decent housing figures last week.
Another good performer on the day was DCC, which rose 2.4 per cent to €20.30, albeit on light volume. The business services group has moved ahead by about €1 over the last two weeks since releasing a trading statement.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)