‘Santa Claus rally’ persists across Europe and US, buoyed by US jobless figures

Despite wafer-thin trading volumes at the Iseq and elsewhere, European stocks rose across the board yesterday, with some bourses now on their longest winning streak in more than two months.

On the day that markets reopened after the Christmas break, traders were buoyed by news from the US that jobless claims there had dropped more than had been forecast.

The Iseq climbed 1.7 per cent yesterday, as national benchmark indexes in all 18 western European markets advanced. France’s CAC 40 gained 1.4 per cent, Germany’s DAX added 1.1 per cent and the UK’s FTSE 100 rose 0.9 per cent.

European bourses took their cue from the all-time highs this week on Wall Street, but some traders said price movements were exaggerated by light volumes.

The volume of shares changing hands in the top 600 European companies was 32 per cent lower yesterday than the average of the past 30 days.

DUBLIN
C&C shrugged off the effects of the disappointing performance of its US cider business to post an increase of more than 2 per cent to close at €4.27, traders said. Its Woodchuck brand has underperformed compared to overall growth in the US hard cider category.

Green Reit finished the day up more than 1.4 per cent at €1.43, as investors continued to show faith in the nascent Irish commercial property revival. In December alone, the stock has risen by about 18 per cent. Traders said Green was attractive as only half of its capital has so far been invested.

Kingspan rose more than 4 per cent to close at €13, as the insulation products supplier is considered well placed to capitalise on any growth in the UK and Irish building sectors.

LONDON
Monitise, which makes technology to facilitate ecommerce, rose 4 per cent to 65.5p, a record high. British consumers were expected to spend about £400 million (€480 million) online yesterday, according to researchers. Monitise shares more than doubled in 2013.

IPF plunged 16 per cent to £4.55. The home-credit business, which offers unsecured loans to low-income households in eastern Europe and Mexico, said on Christmas Eve that its Polish unit was fined about £2.4 million. Polish authorities said the way the company calculates its annual percentage rate infringes consumer interests. IPF is to appeal.

Mining companies preformed particularly well yesterday in London. Fresnillo advanced 3.6 per cent to £7.3. Copper company Antofagasta gained 3.2 per cent to £8.30.

EUROPE
Vestas Wind Systems climbed 1.8 per cent to 159.80 kroner. The world's biggest wind-turbine maker said it won a huge order from an undisclosed US customer. Electrawinds jumped 7.7 per cent to €0.91 after the renewable-energy developer and its Electrawinds NV unit received court protection for three months to negotiate a deal with creditors.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena declined 2.2 per cent to €0.17 as the bailed-out Italian bank postponed a shareholder meeting called to approve a €3 billion stock sale after too few investors showed up. The meeting was delayed until today.

NEW YORK
Twitter dropped 5.7 per cent to $69.14. The microblogging service was cut to underperform from neutral by Macquari, which cited the stock's 40 per cent surge from December 11th through this week.

Delta Air Lines retreated 3 per cent to $27.05. The airline said yesterday it would honour tickets sold at incorrect prices on its website and other booking channels after customers snapped up bargains such as round trips to Hawaii for $6.90.

Textron rose 1.6 per cent to $36.78. The company, seeking to counter a slump in business-jet sales, agreed to buy Beechcraft to boost its lineup of propeller-driven aircraft. Textron will purchase all outstanding equity interests in Beech Holdings LLC. – (Additional reporting: Bloomberg/Reuters)