Investors were cheered up by anticipated summer interest rate reductions from the US and UK, leading to a notable surge in markets on Thursday.
The Irish Stock Exchange lagged behind its European counterparts on Thursday due to the decline in top stocks and banks. Ryanair, the airline company, faced a 3.25% drop to €18.76 on this day, although no particular news attributed to this slide. The airline saw stocks decline over the week due to comments made by CEO Michael O’Leary on airfares, though a brief recovery was noted before another dip on Thursday.
The food companies Glanbia and Kerry Group also experienced slight falls, with shares dropping 1.14% to €18.20 and 1% to €79.50 respectively. The Allied Irish Banks faced a significant 4.4% plunge to €4.89 on Thursday, again with no specific news contributing to this fall. However, recent gains were noted in Irish lenders after brokerage firm remarks suggested potential acquisitions by major European banks.
Furthermore, Bank of Ireland shares fell by 1.66% to €9.824, both underperforming their European counterparts, which were down approximately half a per cent. Despite positive revenue reporting for the first four months of the year, the Irish Continental Group observed a minor fall of 0.37% to €5.38.
In London, the FTSE 100 outshined other European indexes following the Bank of England’s latest policy announcement, hinting at potential summer rate cuts. The export-intensive blue-chip index rose by 0.5% marking a record high around midday on Thursday.
With a rise in metal prices following weak US job data that supported Federal Reserve rate cut speculations, industrial metal miners led gains with a 1.3% increase. In contrast, precious metal miners saw a 0.9% increment.
Lastly, Harbour Energy, a major oil and gas producer in the British North Sea, led the FTSE 250 with a 7.7% surge to 301.10 pence, on forecasts of a significant increase in free cash flow for the coming year.
The mining company Anglo American emerged as one of the top performers in its sector with a 3% surge to 2,736p. On the other hand, 3i Group ended as the largest loser on the FTSE 100, going down by 5.2% and settling at 2,883p. The multinational private equity firm experienced reduced annual total returns. Notably, HSBC Holdings fell by 4.15%, with the company trading ex-dividend.
Turning to Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index, tracking 600 stocks within 18 different markets, maintained growth for a fifth day, ending 0.2% higher. In this index, mining companies performed exceptionally well, whilst travel, leisure, and auto-related stocks struggled. Celebration of a public holiday meant that markets remained shut in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.
In banking news, Banco de Sabadell’s share price increased by 3.17%, reaching €1.86 after Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria initiated a hostile takeover bid. Sabadell turned down BBVA’s previous offer. Following this bid, BBVA’s own share price decreased by 6.71% to €9.60. Telefonica recorded a slight drop of 0.7% down to €4.16, following a Q1 profit report that met analyst estimates; the company confirmed it is on track with the year’s plan.
On Wall Street, the main index increased after hopeful weekly jobless claims data sparked speculation about interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. However, Arm Holdings, facing a full-year revenue forecast that fell short of expectations, saw its share price go down nearly 2%. Its more prominent competitor, Nvidia, observed a 0.9% drop. Video-gaming platform Roblox recorded a hefty 22% crash due to a downgrade in its annual bookings expectation, demonstrating consumer spending cutbacks amidst economic uncertainty and heightened inflation rates. Extra information was provided by Bloomberg and Reuters.