Good Afternoon ,
If you live in Dublin , you will know that weatherwise it is anything but a good afternoon. Summer is out and a belt of rain has made the summer a distant memory so it helps turn our attention to the run in to the end of the year.
CRH was the story of the afternoon as news of President Obama making a speech marking Labour Day in Milwaukee today which will outline details of a $50bn infrastructure spend programme sparked hope for a recovery in the US materials sector. From a CRH perspective the infrastructure plan is rumoured to include rebuilding 150,000 miles (241,000 kilometres) of roads; constructing and rehabilitating or reconstructing 150 miles (240 kilometres) of airport runways. This will radically change the mood music towards that sector though the thorny question of how it is actually funded will not take too long to rear its ugly head…
CRH took off this afternoon and touched 13.80 before giving away some of the gains into the close. The absence of any supporting price movements from the US sector on the bank holiday helped ease the initial optimism and the stock closed at 13.45
The big corporate news of the day was that Blackrock International Land changed its name to Balmoral and instead stopped being mistaken for a large Global asset manager and now suggests it is the Queens own quoted land bank ??? At 2c per share , no one paid too much attention…
Tullow oil crept better after the battering it received last week , still lots of nervous investors wondering how they seem to have got themselves into what seems like an unnecessary debacle.
British Airways was in the news saying it has identified a list of 12 potential acquisition candidates. It does draw attention to the possible attractions of Aer Lingus or at least some of their assets such as the Heathrow slot pairs if BA want to aggressively expand. Also the US customs pre clearance at Dublin Airport could be useful for transit passengers who don’t need to go via Heathrow.
The most interesting news in Ireland was the revelations that Anglo had asked to be taken over by bank of Ireland on the 28th of September 2008 as it feared a collapse. The Bank of Ireland management declined , contacted AIB management and together they encouraged the government to put in place the Bank guarantee scheme….time will tell whether this was a sensible thing to do , it looked like the greatest bluff of all time then as it helped markets to recover and even persuaded the EU competition authority that the guarantee was an unfair competitive advantage to Ireland sourcing fund. As it turns out the guarantee provided breathing space for the bank so that it just took longer to die…The tax payer is on the hook anyway…
Brian Lenihan also did not waver this afternoon in a radio interview when he said that commentators in Ireland calling for a default were unhelpful and that the cost of the ANGLO bailout while infuriating were not unmanageable. A decision taken with the EU re the speed of the Anglo windup is expected within weeks. Everyone wants this to go away…but it wont. As the Guardian called it Anglo is Irelands own resident evil..
Volumes were light today as markets traded without conviction , tomorrow we begin the winter season in earnest.
Have a good evening.
Liam
___________________________________________
Liam Boggan
Merrion Stockbrokers
Tel.: 353-1-2404171
Mob:353-87-2313505
www.merrion-capital.com
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Merrion Stockbrokers Limited (registration no. 307878) is a limited liability company whose registered office is at Block C, The Sweepstakes Centre, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland.
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