CRH rally drives on Iseq

A late rally by its biggest stock, CRH, boosted the Dublin market on a day when most European indices finished flat or slightly off.

The Iseq index of Irish shares ended the day almost 1 per cent up at 2930.63, an increase of 27.44 points.

Elsewhere in Europe, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index was virtually flat, finishing one third of one per cent, or 16.73 points, down at 5983.34.

The Dow Jones Stoxx Europe 600 index, which tracks leading stocks across 18 different markets, added 0.1 per cent to close at 285.

Dublin's advance was chiefly down to international building materials group, CRH, which came with a late run in final hours of trade to post a 1.82 per cent gain having lost ground earlier in the day.

The group closed €16.22, ahead of its opening quote of €15.93, but traded as low as €15.70 at one stage during the day.

Two of its peers, Vulcan and Cemex, produced fourth quarter figures for last year that were below expectations, putting investors off the sector as a whole.

However, dealers said that conference calls given by both groups painted a different picture, with the pair indicating that January was strong and the outlook in the US, where CRH does half its business was improving.

This prompted an aggressive rush for the stocks and their peers during the late afternoon - Irish time – with the result that CRH rallied strongly.

The stock is weighted at close to 28 per cent of the index, so the move helped lift the market as a whole.

Following on from Wednesday, investors continued to show an appetite for food stocks.

Kerry gained 1.23 per cent to close at €24.75, while Glanbia made a similar advance to end the day at €4.20.

Ryanair, which produced passenger numbers that were in line with expectations added 1.07 per cent to close at €3.69.

Dealers said that the low-cost airline is better hedged against oil price movements than many of its competitors.

Traders were surprised to see a bit of volume in Bank of Ireland which gained almost 6.5 per cent to close at 36.4 cent. Around 1.5 million of its shares changed hand in Dublin.

There was no specific reason for the move, but dealers pointed out that virtually any activity in the stock has disproportionately dramatic impact on its price.

Another penny stock, AIB, which is now listed on a secondary market, shed 1.61 per cent to close at 24.4 cent.