Iseq: 2,985.84 (+48.07) Settlement date: February 9th:STRONG PERFORMANCES by the two linchpins of the Iseq, CRH and Ryanair, helped the index to outpace its counterparts comfortably yesterday.
Building materials group CRH moved in line with its European peers, which were lifted by positive momentum coming from the US. The stock finished 28 cent ahead at €16.50.
Ryanair continued to outperform, as it has done over the past week or so. The budget airline gained 1.7 per cent or 6.5 cent to almost €3.76.
As the joint weighting of CRH and Ryanair now constitutes 40 per cent of the Iseq, those performances drove the index higher, and it closed 1.6 per cent ahead.
Aer Lingus gained on the news that the dispute over cabin crew rosters had ended. It closed up more than 2 per cent, or 2.4 cent, at €1.05 on decent volume. One Dublin broker said he was surprised that it did not gain more ground, but said the development “was certainly positive” for the stock.
Packaging group Smurfit Kappa, which is due to report results next week, remained positive, gaining another seven cent to finish at €9.10.
Drug manufacturer Elan was lifted 2.5 per cent, or 12 cent, to €4.87 in advance of its results which are also scheduled to be released next week.
The announcement by Irish Life Permanent that its banking division Permanent TSB is to implement about 280 job cuts, and increase variable mortgage rates by 1 per cent, had little effect on its share price. It closed pretty much flat on the day at just over 90 cent.
Elsewhere in the financial sector, Bank of Ireland added two cent to close at 38.4 cent, while FBD gained 19 cent to €6.95.
Datalex was one of the few losers on the day, slipping 2.5 cent to 23 cent.
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