Good Afternoon ,
The ISEQ index touched below 2000 today a level last reached in June 1995 .before staging a rally late in the day to close down a mere -1.3% , The US market has tried to hold itself in positive territory today after the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said in Congressional testimony that he expects the U.S. recession will end this year and that 2010 "will be a year of recovery," if government action causes some stabilization in financial markets. But he said that officials must successfully break an "adverse feedback loop" in which economic and financial strains become self-reinforcing.Bernanke went on to say that If actions taken by the administration, the Congress and the Federal Reserve are successful in restoring some measure of financial stability -- and only if that is the case, there is a reasonable prospect that the current recession will end in 2009 and that 2010 will be a year of recovery. For now, the U.S. is undergoing a "severe contraction,"
In Ireland Kerry had decent figures and earnings estimates were upgraded for the year which is a rare achievement in this environent.
The news that the Gardai had raided the Offices of Anglo Irish Bank certainly did not help sentiment in Dublin today and Irish Life which has already seen the pressured resignation of the CEO , THE FD and the Head of Treasury reacted badly and fell -26% tp 70c. Truly one hell of a mess and an astonishing collapse of a business which most analysts have considered to be amongst the lower end of the risk curve until recently.
CRH helped the market recover this afternoon as it closed up +2.6% , though Grafton fell a further -1% and Kingspan slipped a bit at the end to 2.04 -2% as it finds support (for the moment anyway) at the 2.00 level.
Aer Lingus shocked as the price fell to new all time lows of 70c and decent volume was traded here , Aer Lingus closed at 75c -10.8% on the day and this impacted Ryanair which fell -3.3% to the 3.00 level.
Norkom fell -18.6% today on small volume as there seems to be a series of investors just happy to dump the smaller stocks at this point.
In the US the market is worried about Citi and its further needs for Government assistance ,. US consumer Confidence numbers hit their lowest levels since records began in 1967 and German business confidence hit a 26 year low.
A short last post , a very disappointing day , maybe tomorrow will be brighter and better ?
Have a good evening
Liam
___________________________________________
Liam Boggan
Merrion Stockbrokers
www.merrion-capital.com
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