Liams Last Post : Markets hanging in there....up , up maybe

Good Afternoon ,

Markets rallied today after an inauspicious start , The Irish Financials rallying rapidly with AIB +7% , Bank of Ireland +14% and Irish Life +4.8% , FBD which we road showed in London also fell -.9% to 5.70

The Building materials stocks continued to rally also despite no news , CRH +4% , the Nil paids +11% , Grafton however was down -1% though Kingsapn continues to rally +4.2% today to 2.47 , hard to quite understand what is going on here. SIG though was up +15%.

Elan rebounded by+2.7% after the fall yesterday though Icon continues to feel the pressure and fell -1.1% , C&C is going sideways after the recent rally etc.

The food companies continued to do ok though Aryzta was down slightly and Origin Enterprises was also down by -4% as Aryzta and origin meet investor post their results. Kerry +1.5% , Glanbia +3.3% , and Total produce +3.8% and Fyffes +2.8%

Smurfit Kappa has bottomed or the time being at the 1.26 level and INM gained +2% today to 10.2c despite the very bearish comments yesterday from Johnston Press.

We published a brief note on Aer Lingus today in the aftermath of their results yesterday. The note is entitled Time to Unlock Value –Investor Patience Wearing Thin’ . The key point of the note is that the the material change in guidance for 2009 (from the position only two months back) and the significant working capital and capex related deterioration in expected cash balances have seriously undermined board and management credibility and this is reflected in a lack of confidence in the stock. Board and management actions need to be more focused on unlocking value for shareholders. Options include: a reassessment of the current capex programme; a special dividend; and, possibly, positioning the company so that a fair value could be realised in an executable trade sale.

The Airlines all had a tough day today as British Airways predicted very weak travel trends. Aer Lingus fell back to 57c and Ryanair closed at 2.86 -1.6%

Paddy Power slipped again but only -0.83% on low volume.


At the close the Eurostoxx 600 index was up +0.5% , London +0.5% and Wall street after an initially weaker opening has rallied to be +1.8% .

Have a good evening.

Liam

___________________________________________

Liam Boggan

Merrion Stockbrokers

www.merrion-capital.com
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