Greek bond yields up over debt concern

The dollar bounced back from four-month lows, while Greek bond yields jumped on worries the country would not be able to make its debt payments.

Wall Street added slightly to gains, pushing the benchmark S&P 500 to a new all-time high. Oil prices retreated as supply worries, triggered by advances by Islamic State militants in Iraqi, eased.

DUBLIN

Speculation about the Government’s intentions in relation to the sale of

Aer Lingus

to IAG was back in fashion after comments from Tánaiste Joan Burton about

Ryanair

making its mind up before the Government will try to arrive at a decision. Whether this had any effect on yesterday’s share price performance is anyone’s guess. The stock closed at €2.39, a rise of 0.38 per cent.

Ryanair

fell by 1.8 per cent, to €10.90.

Recently listed Permanent TSB announced it had raised €300 million of unsecured debt on the market, the first unguaranteed debt transaction by the bank since before the crash in 2007. The stock closed yesterday at €4.49, a fall of 1.19 per cent.

Bank of Ireland fell 0.83 per cent to €0.36, while CRH closed at €25.05, essentially unchanged on the day.

LONDON

The London market made little headway after a run of poor economic figures in the US provided a drag on a number of decent corporate updates.

Marks & Spencer traded strongly ahead of the company's results on Wednesday as the FTSE 100 Index closed 8.4 points higher at 6968.9.

M&S shares were higher – up 2 per cent or 13p to 581p – amid forecasts that it will report its first improvement in annual results in four years.

Silver miner Fresnillo and support services group Babcock International also performed well after impressing investors with their latest guidance. Lloyds Banking Group shares were under pressure after Investec Securities downgraded the stock to sell from hold.

Shares were 0.9p lower at 88.1p in a session when Barclays was flat at 261.5p and Royal Bank of Scotland added 0.5p to 351.3p.

EUROPE

Greek shares recovered after an early fall, with the top share index closing 1.6 per cent higher. The EU said Greece was being “more constructive” in talks, although it denied a report cited by traders that the European Commission was preparing to compromise over a Greek debt deal.

Germany's Dax, which was up 1.3 per cent, outperformed its European colleagues, helped by a 3 per cent rise in Volkswagen shares after analysts at Deutsche Bank hiked the target price to €280 from €230, citing efficiency gains.

Swatch Group AG gained 3.1 per cent as Credit Suisse Group AG raised the stock to the equivalent of a buy rating. Transocean fell 1.3 per cent, reversing an earlier gain of 3.5 per cent as European energy companies declined.

Shares in Austrian energy group OMV sank nearly 9 per cent after it reported a halving of headline profit as low oil prices weighed on its upstream business.

NEW YORK

US stocks rose, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index above its record, as

Apple

climbed on comments from Carl Icahn and as banks rallied.

Apple gained 1.2 per cent after Icahn called for the company to boost its stock buyback. Citigroup and SunTrust Banks added more than 1 per cent. Ann jumped 19 per cent after Ascena Retail Group agreed to buy the women's clothes retailer for $2.2 billion. Altera rallied 5.9 per cent after a report said it had resumed talks with Intel about a potential buyout.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.2 per cent to 2,127.03 at noon, above its all-time high after the benchmark completed a second week of gains on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 12.83 points to 18,285.39 after briefly topping its record set on March 2nd. – (Additional reporting Bloomberg, PA and Reuters)