European shares reversed an earlier decline to finish higher, powered in by part by a surge in healthcare stocks.
In New York, sluggish tech stocks and background concerns about the prospect of tit-for-tat tariff moves dragged on the main Wall Street indices.
Dublin
The Iseq was flat on the session after Tuesday’s 1.1 per cent gain.
AIB and Bank of Ireland, which both registered gains in the previous session were essentially unchanged at €5.72 and €9.54 per share.
After dipping earlier in the session, shares in Ryanair advanced by almost 1 per cent to €20.50 per share after the airline reported a 2 per cent jump in January traffic. It blamed the subdued level of traffic growth on delayed Boeing aircraft deliveries.
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Home builders Glenveagh and Cairn Homes both advanced, adding 0.6 per cent to €1.70 per share and 1.3 per cent to €2.31 respectively.
Kingspan slipped by more than 2 per cent to €65.15 per share
Meanwhile, Irish-headquartered but London-listed DCC sank by 3.5 per cent despite reporting third-quarter profits that were in line with market expectations.
The group said weaker demand for consumer technology over the holiday season in the UK and Europe led to a decline in operating profit in DCC Technology.
Europe
The pan-European Stoxx 500 advanced by 0.4 per cent while the blue-chip Stoxx 50 added 0.2 per cent with Europe’s banks among the top movers on Wednesday.
Shares in Santander surged after the Spanish lender said it expects to return €10 billion to shareholders in buy-backs this year.
Its Italian rival Intesa Sanpaolo dropped 0.8 per cent, despite reporting net income of €8.7 billion for 2024 on Tuesday and raising its 2025 guidance.
Otherwise, it was a mixed session for European lenders with Spanish BBVA up 0.4 per cent and the Netherlands' ING Groep down 0.5 per cent.
French bank BNP Paribas, fell by almost 1 per cent, despite reporting a 15 per cent jump in fourth-quarter profits on Tuesday.
London
With the Bank of England poised to cut rates again on Thursday, British equities jumped on Wednesday. The benchmark FTSE 100 up and the mid-cap FTSE 250 both rose by more than 0.5 per cent.
The healthcare sector led gains with GSK surging ahead by 7.6 per cent after the drugmaker posted a better-than-expected fourth-quarter result.
Precious metal and industrial miners finished on a mixed footing despite surging gold prices. Rio Tinto rose by 0.4 per cent while Glencore and Antofagasta slipped by 0.1 and 0.2 per cent.
New York
Wall Street struggled for direction and benchmark Treasury yields slid on Wednesday as disappointing earnings and mixed economic data counterbalanced easing jitters of a spreading global trade war.
The S&P 500 joined the tech-heavy Nasdaq in negative territory in the wake of disappointing earnings from Alphabet fuelled doubts about the payoff for investment in artificial intelligence (AI).
Simmering in the background are worries of escalating tit-for-tat tariff moves.
Alphabet was the biggest drag, sliding more than 7 per cent after posting downbeat cloud revenue growth and earmarking a higher-than-expected $75 billion (€72 billion) for its AI buildout this year.
After being rocked by the DeepSeek phenomenon last week, Nvidia, among the companies worst hit, advanced by 3.8 per cent, while its fellow chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices lost almost 9 per cent.
Shares of Apple eased 1.2 per cent as Bloomberg News reported that China’s antitrust regulator was preparing for a possible investigation of the iPhone maker.
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