On Monday, global shares enjoyed a bit of a boost, while an upward shift was noted in Treasury yields, as the focus of investors turned to a slew of impending central bank meetings. This week holds the potential for Japan’s era of “free money” to come to a halt and for a potential plan for US rate reductions to be unveiled this year.
In Dublin, Euronext closed with a slight rise, in a day characterised by an underwhelming investor turnout following the St Patrick’s Day holiday. Despite the trading volumes being light, the day’s most notable rise was observed at AIB, with an increase of 3%. Its companion, Bank of Ireland, also saw an increase of 11 basis points.
On the homebuilder’s front, Cairn Homes ended the day with a mild increase of just over 1%. In contrast, following a dip in the first half of its financial year 2024 revenues due to a global correction in feed and fertiliser pricing, Origin Enterprises noted a decrease by 1.8%, thereby undoing some of Friday’s gains.
Finishing the day with an increase of 25 basis points was the country’s foremost landlord, Ires Reit. This progress came on the heels of last week’s news about US property expert Starwood Capital enhancing its stake in the company to 1.9%. Eddie Byrne, formerly an executive with US investment firm Lone Star and Anglo Irish Bank, has been announced as the company’s incoming CEO.
In London, the FTSE 100 was steady, remaining at a standstill after reaching an eight-month peak the previous week. This calm was established due to a balance between a decline in some water companies like Severn Trent and United Utilities, and an increase in cigarette companies like Imperial Brands and British American Tobacco.
Shares in electronics retailer Currys experienced a boost of 5.42% due to its revelation of a probable rise in profits. Conversely, a drop of 8.53% was experienced by Marshalls after the building materials company downgraded its annual forecasts, suggesting a slower-than-expected market recovery.
With pertinent interest rate decisions expected this week from the United States, Britain and Japan, European stocks experienced a slight downshift as investors exercised caution in terms of pushing the index significantly higher.
The Stoxx 600 Index saw a slight fall of 0.1% at close, with poor performance mainly fuelled by the telecommunication and consumer products stocks. Nonetheless, the automobile industry and rate-responsive sector like real estate reported gains. The pharmaceutical giant, Haleon, experienced a share price fall after Pfizer announced their intention to liquidate around £2 billion, or approximately €2.3 billion, of its shares.
This event brings the main regional benchmark to its eighth consecutive week of growth with investors keeping an eager eye out for resistance signs. Contrastingly, the Dax index in Frankfurt marginally fell by 0.02%, while Paris’s Cac 40 closed down by 0.2%.
Moving to New York, Wall Street’s leading indexes witnessed growth, primarily driven by an uptick witnessed in the shares of dominant tech firms such as Alphabet and Tesla. This growth spurred a swift recovery in the tech-heavy Nasdaq, setting the stage for the upcoming US Federal Reserve’s meeting.
Key growing stocks recorded a rally. Significant was Alphabet with a 6.7% gain, spurred by media reports of a supposed discussion with Apple to integrate Google’s innovative Gemini AI into the iPhone. The communication services sector followed suit with a 3.6% upturn, leading the gains among the broad 11 S&P 500 sectors.
Tesla’s shares rose 6.7% after the company announced it intends to raise the price of its Model Y electric vehicles by about €2,000 or equivalent in local countries across Europe.
The summit will also keep a keen eye on AI-darling as it inaugurates its annual developer conference. Investors are particularly interested in new chip announcements promised by Jensen Huang, the company’s CEO, set for a keynote address in the afternoon. The chipmaker’s shares grew by 1.2%. Meanwhile, fellow chipmakers Micron Technology and Intel reported gains of 1.5% and 0.3% respectively, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor index climbed 0.5%.