Share price boost for Bank of Ireland

Bank of Ireland had a good day yesterday with its pending entry to the Footsie All World Services Index, due to occur at the close of business on March 15th, giving its share price a boost.

The stock closed at €0.146, a rise of 2.1 per cent. The bank released results earlier this week and is currently on a roadshow.

Overall the Iseq index rose 0.1 per cent, to close at 3,829.75. This was a credible performance when compared with its peers.

DUBLIN

A number of companies released results and they had varying effects on their share price.

Operating profit and earnings at Irish Continental Group fell last year as higher fuel bills and lower freight volumes outweighed a rise in turnover. The group recorded a decline of 2.2 per cent in operating profit from €27.1 million in 2011 to €26.5 million last year, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation dipped 3.2 per cent to €45.8 million due to lower freight volumes and higher fuel costs. The stock closed at €20.99, a rise of 2.89 per cent.

Fruit importer Fyffes reported revenues totalling more than €1 billion for the first time since it’s demerger of Total Produce in 2006.

Profit before tax in 2012 rose 36.2 per cent to €30.3 million, while diluted earnings per share increased 45.8 per cent to 8.82 cent from 6.05 cent.

The figures encourage investors and the stock closed at €0.63, a rise of 5.83 per cent.

Revenue at Grafton rose by 6 per cent to €2.2 billion last year, with profit being driven by its UK merchanting business, thought the Irish business showed some recovery in the second half.

The company said underlying operating profit was 33 per cent higher compared to the same period a year earlier, with underlying pretax profit rising 41 per cent to €59.7 million.

The results were considered fine but the effect on the share price was negligible. The share did rise during the day but fell again and closed 0.04 per cent down on the day, at €4.83.

CRH had a good day, rising 1.4 per cent, to €16.98. Ryanair was under a bit of pressure, traders said, though for no particular reason. It closed at €5.85, a fall of 0.7 per cent.

LONDON

UK stocks advanced as US initial jobless claims fell to a six-week low and European Central Bank president Mario Draghi said economic activity in the euro area may improve later this year.

Aggreko surged 10 per cent to 1,939 pence, the most since 2008, after it proposed a 15 per cent increase in the full-year dividend. “At a group level, our expectation is that over the next five years, we should achieve – on average and subject to year-on-year variation – double-digit rates of growth in revenues, with margins and returns on capital in excess of 20 per cent,” the world’s largest provider of mobile-power supplies said.

EUROPE

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.1 per cent to 293.19 at the close of trading, as five shares gained for every four that fell. The index has advanced 4.8 per cent this year.National benchmark indexes gained in 13 of the 18 western- European markets.

Carrefour climbed 2.9 per cent to €22, its highest price since July 2011. Annual recurring operating income fell 2.6 per cent to €2.14 billion ($2.8 billion), beating the €2.07 billion average analyst estimate.

Adidas climbed 6.6 per cent to €76.38, the highest price since the shares started trading in November 1995. The world’s second-largest sporting-goods maker forecast higher sales and profit this year and raised its dividend by 35 per cent as it targets fast-growing emerging markets.

NEW YORK

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed to another record as the number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits fell to a six-week low, showing further improvement in the labour market. – (Additional reporting, Bloomberg)