Markets dip in face of good corporate results
Dublin
Insulation and building materials group Kingspan shed 2.55 per cent to €72.65. Dealers noted that US rival Carlisle reported flat sales on Wednesday night, prompting investors to swerve the Irish group.
Food and ingredients maker Kerry continued a decline sparked by results earlier in the week. Shares slipped 2.93 per cent on Thursday to €81.15. The fall followed a 6.7 per cent slump the previous day.
Ryanair climbed 1.21 per cent to €25.91 as airlines across Europe gained altitude. Air France-KLM reported a strong quarterly performance earlier on Thursday.
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Dublin's listed housebuilders enjoyed a constructive day. Cairn Homes added 3.81 per cent to €2.18 while Glenveagh Properties rose 1.74 per cent to €1.874.
PTSB edged 0.48 per cent up to €2.08. The bank reported that its pretax profit fell 38 per cent to €51 million in the first half of the year as net interest income declined.
London
Aer Lingus and British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) climbed 2.56 per cent to 380.5 pence on a good day for airlines, aided by strong Air France results.
The stock boost came as IAG prepared to publish its own second-quarter figures on Friday.
Budget carrier and Ryanair rival EasyJet also benefited, gaining 2.13 per cent to 493.7p.
Aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce surged 8.5 per cent to 1,072p after the company boosted profit predictions on the back of strong results for the first half of the year.
The company said operations could generate up to £3.2 billion profit this year, £300 million more than it originally forecast.
The news continued a turnaround for the company, which makes engines for Airbus wide-body jets and luxury cars, since Tufan Erginbilgic joined as chief executive in 2023
Oil giant Shell advanced 1.19 per cent to 2,711p after announcing plans for a share buy-back programme.
Fashion chain Next added 0.54 per cent to close at 281.5p after reporting that full-price sales in the 13 weeks to July 26 rose 10.5 per cent versus last year.
Europe
Shares in Ferrari tumbled on Thursday despite the Italian luxury sports car maker reporting that earnings per share for the quarter ended June rose to €2.39 from €2.29 for the same period last year.
Its stock was down more than 12 per cent at one point, its sharpest fall since 2016, according to Reuters. The shares were 11.65 per cent off at €385.30 shortly after 5.30pm Irish time.
Air France-KLM shares were up 4.65 per cent at €11.58 after the company reported that sales rose 6.2 per cent to €8.4 billion in the three months ended June 30th.
France's CAC index closed down more than 1 per cent on Thursday. Germany's DAX was off around 0.8 per cent.
US
Kingspan rival Carlisle Companies shares were down 12 per cent at $361.26 at 6.40pm Irish time. The group reported that revenues for the three months to June 30th were flat at $1.4 billion.
Both Microsoft and Facebook parent Meta, which have large Irish operations, rose on the back of better-than-expected results.
Microsoft was up 6 per cent while Meta had climbed 11.5 per cent.
Microsoft said that annual revenue from its cloud computing service Azure exceeded $75 billion.
Microsoft became the second company in the world (after Nvidia) to reach a $4 trillion market capitalisation after reporting quarterly earnings that beat Wall Street expectations.
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