Liams Last Post : Certain inevitability about the slide

Good Afternoon

Here we go again , Ireland starts the week with a steady decline interrupted briefly at lunchtime when the US market opened strongly.
The week started quietly , even the usual cheltenham week enthusiasm seems lacklustre. It was a sleepy day today for sure.

CRH is the driver of the ISEQ index these days so as CRH and the other major stocks in the sector declined the ISEQ was on a one way track lower.

I do think as discussed last week that CRH has bullet proofed itself and the issue leaves it in a very stron position to control its own destiny. There wa always however going to be a period of technical weakness as the cash demands from CRH itself not to mention the other stocks in the sector drained any new buying interest and indeed with some institutions undoubtedly funding the takeup of their rights by selling some of the ordinaries the stock was bound to pull back. The Pullback does however present an opportunity to get onboard at an attractive price and anyone who is not already long the stock and who thinks they might get some stock from the rump may be disappointd. I think I would be looking to buy CRH at around these levels.

ICON has continued to struggle as the latest mega merger in the Large Pharma sector impacts on sentiment with fears of a reduction in the number of clinical trials that are likely to be outsourced. With the Wave of Pharma mergers onlybeginning , it would seem to me that ICON may drift for a while here on sentiment alone.

The financials survived another day with AIB +12% Bank of Ireland +13.5% but Irish Life down -11% today.

We had results from Aryzta and Origin today. Looks Like Origin was boosted by the strong performance of Massstock and the company is guiding to a range of earnings growth of about 4% for the full year. Aryzta CEO described himself as a newsreader rather than a weather forecaster when refusing to give any guidance. His comment that the rate of decline in Ireland is no longer continueeeeeing ! lets hope so. Otherwise the Aryzta numbers were good and looks like some small upgrades to come there.

Smurfit looks on track to keep its date with the previous low of below a Euro with a further decline of -4.7%

Ryanair has been volatile but with the stock now trading below 2.90 , it does look attractive here.

C&C is inching its way higher and closed at 1.185 , Tullow was the highlight with news of successful find in Tweneboa .

Europe closed down -0.5% and London closed down -0.6% , but at 5pm Wall street is -1%having tried to go better after the opening.

Plus ca Change..

Have a good evening

Liam

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Liam Boggan

Merrion Stockbrokers

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