US values advance on positive sentiment

US stocks did well yesterday while markets closer to home were more nervy, worried about events in Ukraine and the coming earnings season on Wall Street. Social media and internet stocks provided a fillip to the New York exchange.

DUBLIN
Traders in Dublin described the day as "pretty horrible" with the market being driven by international factors, the only salvation being something of a rally near the close. A race to safer shores was evident along with profit-taking among nervy investors.

Bank of Ireland having started the day at €0.31, fell to close to €0.29 before rising again to close at €0.31, a fall of almost 1.3 per cent on the day.

Paddy Power started the day at more than €57, fell to under €55 and closed the day at €55.8, a fall of 1.97 per cent.

Smurfit Kappa fell 2.59 per cent, to €17.52, while Datalex fell 4.35 per cent, to €1.32. European airlines generally did badly and Ryanair closed down 3.06 per cent, at €7.35. Aer Lingus fell 0.30 per cent, to €1.67. CRH closed at €20.99, a fall of 1.29 per cent.

Food stocks tended to do better than most. Aryzta rose 1.83 per cent, to €64.16, while Glanbia fell 0.55 per cent, to €10.84. Kerry fell 0.59 per cent, to €54.22.

LONDON
Britain's blue-chip share index hit a two-week low, with Sports Direct leading losses after a share sale by founder Mike Ashley and technicals pointing to a bearish market outlook in the near term.

Britain’s biggest sporting goods retailer slumped 9.2 per cent after Ashley sold 25 million shares while financial stocks were also hard hit on concerns about earnings and valuations.

The market was pressured by a sell-off in insurance and banking shares. Investors took a cautious stand in the near term ahead of the earnings season and on concerns about valuations, geopolitical worries and growth prospects.

Financials were the worst hit, with Lloyds down 2 per cent, Barclays down 1.3 per cent, Resolution falling 3.8 per cent and Prudential dropping 1.5 per cent.

Insurers also slipped in a knee-jerk reaction to news that Britain’s insurance industry had urged its regulator to hold an independent inquiry into how news of a review into the sector was released. The news added to uncertainty about regulatory scrutiny of the sector.

Shares in the sector tumbled on March 28th after the Financial Conduct Authority told a newspaper it was reviewing part of the industry, raising fears profitability would be hit.

EUROPE
European stocks declined for a second day as investors weighed escalating tensions between America and Russia over the future of eastern Europe.

National benchmark indexes dropped in 15 of the 18 western European markets. Germany’s DAX lost 0.2 per cent while France’s CAC 40 slid 0.3 per cent.

Suedzucker slumped 21 per cent to €16.23, its biggest fall since 1998. The maker of sugar, starch and bakery additives projects full-year revenue of about €7 billion, below analyst estimates of €7.5 billion The company, which is reviewing costs in the sugar business, projected operating profit of about €200 million, trailing estimates of €608 million.

US
Stocks rose, rebounding after three days of declines, as investors bought beaten-down shares of social media and internet companies.

The day's biggest gainers included Amazon.com up 2.3 per cent at $324.99, Yahoo! up 3 per cent at $34.05, and LinkedIn up 4.5 per cent to $166.78.

The Global X social media index rose 3.1 per cent to 18.64.

Biotechnology stocks also reversed earlier losses, with the Nasdaq biotechnology index up 0.2 per cent at 2,372.38. But Gilead Sciences was among the biggest decliners on the S&P 500, down 2.2 per cent at $70.64. – (Additional reporting Bloomberg, Reuters)