Iseq: 2,971.96 up 6.67 points The Iseq closed up today after what proved to be a volatile day on the markets, where early gains were wiped out by news of higher than expected jobs cuts in the US, only for stocks to stage a late come-back in the afternoon.
Financial stocks continued to improve, with AIB, buoyed by news that it successfully sold a five-year bond not covered by the Government guarantee, closing at €1.92, up 9.15 per cent.
Bank of Ireland, finishing at €1.99 up 4.19 per cent and Irish Life and Permanent, closing at €4.90 up 3.16 per cent, were both aided by positive market reaction to the news that Dáil had voted to pass the Nama legislation and easing concerns over EU intervention in the banking sector.
Trading volumes on the financials were considerably lighter than earlier in the week, however.
Healthcare services provider United Drug performed well, closing at €2.39 up 3.91 per cent while there was heavy trading on Smurfit Kappa Group, which closed the day at €5.70, up 5.56 per cent
Index staple CRH had a negative day, closing at €17.45, down 3.27 per cent. The construction giant wavered after industry peers Lafarge and Wienerberger reported worsening sales results and no improvement in the US market, where CRH have considerable interests.
Food Producer Kerry also closed the session in negative territory, despite some growth in the sector, finishing at €19.75, down 2.32 per cent.
Although second quarter results from British Airways also made for grim reading, with the carrier suffering a record £292 million loss in what is traditionally a lucrative period for airlines, the news was still better than expected and the airline sector had a relatively good afternoon.
Aer Lingus closed at €0.56, up 5.66 per cent after the carrier announced that October passage numbers saw a slight decline, dropping 0.2 per cent from a year earlier to 902,000 for the month. Ryanair was also up, finishing at €2.91, up 2.11 per cent.
Elsewhere, IFG continued its good progress to finish at €1.38, up 2.22 per cent, Grafton rallied from a daily low of €3.41 to close at €3.52, up 2.62 per cent while C&C dropped to €2.65, down 1.85 per cent at close.
On international markets the FTSE 100 index closed up 17.1 points, at 5,142.72, after the markets reacted well to cost reduction measures at British Airways and a rally in the financials after Royal Bank of Scotland Group more than halved its operating losses to £1.5 billion in the third quarter as impairments fell.
The Dow fell on opening as expected, but climbed 22.30 points up to 10,028.26 on the back of news that brokers had upgraded market heavyweight General Electric. News that payroll losses in the US continued to decline and job losses for earlier months were lower than initially reported also help push the market upwards.
Stocks on the Frankfurt Dax index took a tumble at midday, following bleak news from the US Labour Department, but the index followed European trends and recovered to close up 7.3 points, at 5,488.25.
The Cac 40 closed largely static, down slightly by 1.4 points to 3,707.29 after a volatile day’s trading in Paris.