Tullow recovery extends FTSE rebound

St Patrick’s Day was a quiet day on the Dublin Stock Exchange, as might be expected, with most of the interest in stocks that were also traded in the UK.

In London there was much talk of the upcoming budget, while in Europe generally, data from Germany, concerns about Greece and sluggish inflation were all in the mix. Germany’s DAX was down 1.5 per cent.

The Iseq index of Irish shares closed at 5,994.45, a fall of 1.96 per cent.

DUBLIN

Ongoing concerns that the purchase by

CRH

of assets worth €6.5 billion arising from the merger of Holcim and Lefarge may not go ahead continued to hit the stock. The Iseq heavyweight is due to told an extraordinary general meeting tomorrow. The stock closed at €23.45, a fall of 3.28 per cent.

The only other stock of particular interest was Dragon Oil, which announced in the afternoon that it had received a takeover approach from Emirates National Oil, but said there was no certainty that an offer will be made.

Emirates National Oil is owned by Dubai’s government and is the largest shareholder in Dragon Oil, holding a 53 per cent stake, according to Bloomberg Data. The stock closed yesterday at €7.97, a rise of 6.7 per cent.

Ryanair fell 3.66 per cent, to €10.54, while Bank of Ireland closed at €0.35, a fall of 3.26 per cent.

LONDON

Britain’s top share index edged higher to extend a recent rebound from last week’s lows, led by a recovery in Tullow Oil as investors bought into beaten-down oil stocks.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index, which had its worst weekly loss in 2015 last week, gained 0.5 per cent, up 33.53 points at 6,837.61 points by the close.

Tullow Oil rose 6.1 per cent to retrace all of the previous session's fall, while British Gas owner Centrica rose 5 per cent.

Tullow has been the top FTSE faller this year, down more than 30 per cent in 2015 as oil prices dropped. Centrica is the third-biggest, down nearly 15 per cent in the build-up to May’s general election, after which utilities could come under more regulatory pressure.

Sainsbury's was one of the most heavily traded stocks on the FTSE 100, losing early gains to trade 0.8 per cent lower.

EUROPE

European stocks slipped as a measure of German investor confidence missed forecasts and the release of car sales data hit the sector.

Car-makers led declines, with Peugeot sliding 5.9 per cent. Holcim and Lafarge dragged construction stocks lower amid disagreements over the leadership and financial terms of their proposed merger. Kepler Cheuvreux cut the odds of the chances of a successful deal to below 50 per cent from 95 per cent.

Euro-area core consumer prices rose 0.7 per cent from a year ago in February, compared with 0.6 per cent in January, Eurostat figures showed.

German investor confidence rose less than expected in March. The ZEW Centre for European Economic Research said its index of investor and analyst expectations, which aims to predict economic developments six months in advance, climbed to 54.8 from 53 in February.

Economists had forecast an increase to 59.4.

NEW YORK

US stocks retreated from the biggest rally in more than a month as commodity and consumer shares slumped before the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision.

The S&P 500 Index dropped 0.3 per cent to 2,074.28 in New York, after its 1.3 per cent climb on Monday, the strongest since February 3rd. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 128.34 points, or 0.71 per cent, to 17,849.08.

Apple climbed 1.67 per cent. A person with knowledge of the matter said Apple plans to start accepting non-Apple devices as trade-ins as the company seeks to extend market-share gains against smartphones based on Google's Android software. – (Additional reporting, Reuters, Bloomberg)