Ryanair among top performers on lacklustre day

DUBLIN REPORT: Iseq:2,899.69 (+15.46) Settlement date:July 15th

THE IRISH market had a fairly featureless and uninspiring day, but still managed to outperform several of its European peers. The Iseq added about 0.5 per cent to finish a lustreless session just below 2,900.

“It was a typical Monday for the Irish market,” a Dublin broker said, adding that international markets failed to provide any inspiration. One of the best performers among the leading stocks was low-fares airline Ryanair, which traded up 1.3 per cent to €3.91.

Building materials group CRH recovered a little from a “very bouncy week”, a broker said, and added almost 2 per cent, or 29 cent, to finish just below €15.82. The stock had been quite weak after releasing a trading update last Wednesday and volumes remained light enough yesterday. There was nothing “fantastically exciting” going on behind yesterday’s jump, one trader noted. “It was just people positioning themselves ahead of quarter three,” he said.

Packaging group Smurfit Kappa touched a daily high of €7.33 at one stage, but lost most of its gains to finish at €7.15.

AIB and Irish Life & Permanent softened slightly, shedding two cent and one cent respectively to finish at 91 cent and €1.56. Volume was light in the sector, with the exception of Bank of Ireland but, despite strong activity in that stock, it closed unchanged at 73 cent. Oil and gas exploration company Providence Resources provided a technical update on its Frontier Exploration licence, but although this was positively received by brokers, the stock was flat on the day at €1.95.

Software firm Norkom announced its financial crime risk management solution has been ranked highest in its industry by analyst firm Chartis Research for the second year in succession – but that didn’t prevent its share price slipping three cent to €1.25.