On Monday, the Irish market saw a subtle performance, notwithstanding, the Iseq surpassed its European counterparts by climbing 0.43 per cent throughout the day. The US markets were not operating because of the Labor Day holiday. Presently, dealers are setting their sights on September, a month known for being risky for equity markets.
In Dublin, the Iseq succeeded in gaining a 0.43 per cent leap on Monday, outclassing European competitors. AIB experienced an upwards adjustment of 1.65 per cent to wrap up at €5.53 per share. This follows a share buyback deal of €500 million, resulting in AIB purchasing back government shares and reducing its own stake in the company by about 22 per cent. The Bank of Ireland witnessed a slight decrease of 0.34 per cent finalising at €10.33 per share.
Permanent TSB saw a 5 per cent rise today, closing at €1.68, recuperating some of last week’s losses. Kingspan also saw a boost with a 2.16 per cent increase, finalising at €80.40, ahead of the imminent publication of the final report on the Grenfell Tower fire this Wednesday. Ryanair fell 1.3 per cent to €15.73 whereas Dalata hotels experienced a minor drop of 0.91 per cent to €4.36.
In London, the leading UK stock index landed lower on Monday, burdened by a sell-down in shares of aerospace, defence and personal goods, although property shares surged due to a bid for property platform Rightmove, limiting losses.
The FTSE 100, a primary blue-chip index, was down 0.2 per cent, following a high in three months last Friday and its third consecutive weekly escalation.
There was a tumble in the aerospace and defence index by 4.1 per cent, marking the largest single-day fall in almost eighteen months, due to a 6.5 per cent decrement in aerospace engineer Rolls-Royce’s stocks.
The European aerospace and defence index dipped 2.4 per cent, recording the largest reduction in a month.
After Bofa Global Research drastically cut its price goal on sectoral behemoths, the personal goods index decreased 1.9 per cent. Burberry, the luxury retailer, saw a dip of 0.7 per cent while Watches of Switzerland Group faced a plummet of 4.8 per cent following the cut.
In a striking development, the real estate sector saw a 2.6% rise; this surge was largely down to a 27.4% increase in stock prices for Rightmove, the UK’s principal property portal. Despite speculations about a rate cut, the Bank of England is likely to retain the current interest rates this month and implement a reduction in November, the second instance of rate change since 2020.
In other news, Europe’s Stoxx 600 index experienced a 0.21% dip after recording an all-time high the preceding Friday. Germany’s DAX also noted a drop of 0.1%. The result of state elections in Germany leading to populist parties’ victories has injected a fresh wave of political uncertainty in the European market.
Aneeka Gupta, an equity analyst at WisdomTree, commented on the setback in European shares, attributing it to China’s dismal economic statistics. She noted that the sectors of industrials and consumer discretionary were the hardest hit.
Over in the US, the S&P 500 index futures saw a fall of 0.1%, while the future projections for the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were neither positive nor negative. On Monday, the US stock market and Treasuries remained inactive due to Labor Day.
The most anticipated event this week will be the disclosure of the US non-farm payrolls report on Friday. The report is expected to indicate an addition of 165,000 jobs for August, an improvement from July’s 114,000. The market is predicting a rate reduction by the Federal Reserve in September with a 33% probability of a sweeping 50-point cut. Yet, these estimations could change come Friday.
The disappointing July jobs report led to a worldwide stocks sell-off at the start of August, although the S&P 500 has since recouped, now lagging just 0.4% behind a record high. Additional information courtesy of Reuters.