Liams Last Post : Ireland weak against the trend though Banks and do ok...

Good Afternoon ,

 

Interesting strength in the smaller exploration stocks which have been showing signs of life recently. Petroneft continued its recent run up another +7% today.  Norkom which is a stock we like also showed some signs f life up +4.2% and AIB and Bank of Ireland also creeping better. AIB driven by rumours of up to 10 suitors being interested in the Polish operation BZWBK which AIB is being told to sell by the Minister.

Glanbia was also up after a successful presentation yesterday outlining the opportunities for their residual businesses post the disposal of the Dairy division The Farmers Journal today has a story suggesting that the terms of the deal will be announced next week.

 

Merrion published a significant piece of proprietary research today on Paddy Power which was conducted in association with the Racing Post. The conclusions support my own views of the stock but helpfully today also triggered an upgrade to the formal recommendation with Merrion concluding that we are now comfortable with our forecasts for the current and the following year but that there is potential upside to the forecasts. The stock has had a cracking run though since the week before the Cheltenham festival so despite our positive stance the stock actually fell -1.7%.

 

Ireland was down against the trend today with weakness in Smurfit Kappa -2.5% , Kingspan -2.5% , Aer Lingus -2.7% and United Drug -3.25% with Ryanair dragging down the index a little with its -1.8% performance.

 

The Airlines were weak due to the negative impact of the news that UK and Irish Airspace was closed to day and Ryanair were certainly offering full refunds to passengers whose flights were cancelled.

 

Wall Street which opened lower this afternoon rallied into positive territory but at 5pm is looking like it may re-test the days lows. Wall Street is still over 100 points above the 11000 level though many pundits have noted that the markets look overbought and susceptible to a bout of profit taking from these levels .

 

The Icelandic Volcano dominates the news today with major disruption to  , though the news that the Quinn Group has acquiesced to the appointment of permanent administrators will dominate the airways in Ireland tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

___________________________________________

Liam Boggan

　

Merrion Stockbrokers

Tel.: 353-1-2404171

Mob:353-87-2313505

www.merrion-capital.com

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