The Iseq All-Share index and the wider European market hit all-time highs on Thursday, led by property stocks, as investors priced in more monetary policy easing by the European Central Bank (ECB) this year and assessed a mixed bag of corporate results.
The ECB lowered borrowing costs by an expected quarter of a percentage point to 2.75 per cent and kept the door open to further policy easing as concerns over lacklustre economic growth superseded worries about persistent inflation.
The Iseq rose 0.8 per cent to 10,321.66, marking a record closing level, having peaked earlier in the session at a high of 10,367.57.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.9 per cent higher, logging its 10th advance in the past 12 sessions.
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Dublin
Cairn Homes jumped 2.6 per cent to €2.19 and Glenveagh Properties added 2.2 per cent to €1.67 as investors real estate-related stocks eye further rate cuts.
Banks, which stand to make less net interest income in a declining rates environment, were mixed. Bank of Ireland lost 0.7 per cent to €9.75, while AIB edged 0.9 per cent higher to €5.73 and PTSB closed unchanged at €1.40.
Greencoat Renewables rose 2.1 per cent to 79.6 cents after the group reported slight net asset value (NAV) per share growth during the fourth quarter, despite power generation being 15 per cent behind budget.
Ryanair gained 1.7 per cent to €20.66. Fellow European low-cost airline Wizz Air issued a second profit warning in six months.
London
The blue-chip FTSE 100 smashed through the psychological 8,600 mark for the first time to close up 1 per cent at 8,646.88 points as investors cheered a healthy set of corporate updates, while a surge in precious metal miners also boosted the index.
There were some movements of Irish interest. Dublin-based, but London-listed Greencore jumped 2.6 per cent after reporting strong quarterly revenue growth.
However, Irish-founded Tullow Oil’s shares closed down 2 per cent, having seesawed earlier in the session as investors weighed a disappointing production and cash flow outlook from the group against news that it plans to sell off “certain noncore assets” to cut its debt level.
Precious metal miners hit its highest in over a month, boosted by an 7.2 per cent jump in Endeavour Mining after it reported its 2024 production results.
The boost also came after gold prices hit a record-high.
Heavyweight Shell was one of the biggest boosts to the index, rising 2.6 per cent, after the energy giant reported its fourth-quarter results and announced a $3.5 billion (€3.4 billion) share buyback.
St James’s Place jumped 6.7 per cent after the UK wealth manager reported better-than-expected managed funds for 2024.
Europe
German property companies Leg Immobilien and Tag Immobilien rose 4.4 per cent each, boosted by rate cut hopes and rating upgrades by brokerage HSBC.
Technology stocks rose for the third-straight day, up 1.1 per cent as the sector continued to recover from a sell-off earlier in the week triggered by the emergence of Chinese firm DeepSeek’s cheaper AI model.
However, advances were limited by STMicroelectronics' 10.7 per cent drop after one of Europe’s largest chipmakers forecast that sales in the first quarter of 2025 would likely drop further.
Also bucking the trend, Deutsche Bank fell about 3.2 per cent after Germany’s largest lender posted a bigger-than-expected drop in fourth-quarter and 2024 full-year profit.
New York
The S&P 500 was muted in early afternoon trading on Wall Street as losses in tech heavyweights Microsoft and Nvidia countered earnings-led gains for Meta and Tesla, while investors parsed a slew of corporate earnings a day after the US central bank held interest rates steady.
Microsoft dropped after forecasting disappointing growth in its cloud computing business, while Meta Platforms rose after beating fourth-quarter revenue estimates.
Meanwhile, Tesla gained in choppy trading after saying it was on track to roll out new, cheaper EV models in the first half of 2025. It also said it would start testing a paid autonomous car service in June, overshadowing quarterly results that fell short of expectations.
United Parcel Service fell after forecasting 2025 revenue below expectations.
- Additional reporting, Reuters
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