DUBLIN REPORT: Iseq:2,950.31 (–23.67) Settlement date:February 26th

KERRY GROUP was the star performer yesterday as Irish stocks followed the general drift across European markets brought on by reports of poor German business confidence and worse than expected US consumer sentiment.

Food and ingredients group, Kerry published results for 2009 showing pretax profit up 6 per cent at €335.8 million.

Dealers pointed out that investors had been buying into the group over the last week in the expectation that it was about to publish strong results.

However, the group predicted that earnings per share this year would be in the 182 to 185 cent range against 166.5 cent in 2009.

Its shares were up 2.24 per cent at €23.30, dealers said that overall, buying activity has added around 10 per cent to Kerry’s value over the last week.

Packaging specialist, Smurfit Kappaalso gained ground ending the day 0.55 per cent up at €6.40 after touching highs of €6.44 during the day.

Dealers said that figures from rival, Mondi, showing that price increases and reduced capacity beginning to feed through to the bottom line, boosted Smurfit, as it has taken similar steps as its competitor to combat the recession.

Investors were keen to sell off AIBand Bank of Ireland, both of which lost considerable ground. AIB was down 6.34 per cent at €1.019 while its competitor was down 5.67 per cent at €1.115.

Global building materials giant, CRH,which accounts for one third of the index, was flat for most of the day, but shed 1.13 per cent in the afternoon to close at €17.45, despite news that the US Senate has voted to boost federal highway spending.

In a related sector, builders' merchant and DIY specialist, Grafton, added almost 3 per cent to close at 2.50. Dealers speculated that buyers saw value in the price following recent falls.