Shares advance as corporate earnings parade ramps up
On Wall Street, the main indices hit record highs on big gains from megacap stocks.
DUBLIN
Outperforming many European indices, the ISEQ closed up 1.3 per cent on Monday, led higher by a surge in Ryanair's shares.
The airline advanced by 5.7 per cent to €24.44 per share after reporting that its profits more than doubled to €820 million in the three months to the end of June. Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said the carrier's fares had benefited substantially from having a full Easter holiday in April.
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Bank shares were mixed, with AIB edging slightly higher to €6.58 per share while Bank of Ireland dipped by 0.3 per cent to €11.81 per share.
Shares in hotel group Dalata slid 0.3 per cent to €6.37 per share.
LONDON
UK shares inched higher, supported by industrial miners that jumped on hopes of stimulus from China. The benchmark FTSE 100 index closed up by 0.2 per cent, and the domestic-focused FTSE 250 added 0.5 per cent.
Led by Antofagasta, which jumped 4.7 per cent, mining stocks were among the biggest gainers on the session. Anglo American jumped 3.3 per cent, with Glencore advancing by 3 per cent and Rio Tinto adding 2.7 per cent.
The move came on foot of China's promise to stabilise its industrial growth, and on hopes for more stimulus from the world's largest commodity consumer.
BP rose 0.26 per cent after naming former CRH chief executive Albert Manifold as its next chairman. Activist Elliot Investment Management said it would work with the Irishman to 'urgently' address shortcomings at the oil major.
Banks ended the day well. NatWest finished 1.4 per cent higher, with Lloyds up 1.3 per cent and HSBC edged 1 per cent higher.
EUROPE
European shares were softer as markets await developments in trade talks between the EU and the US. The blue-chip Stoxx 50 index fell by 0.3 per cent while the pan-European Stoxx 600 dipped by just over 0.1 per cent.
Shares in Stellantis jumped by 1.5 per cent despite the Fiat and Peugeot-maker reporting a net loss of €2.3 billion for the first half of the year. The company also said it would take a €300 million hit from the impact of Trump's tariffs, including the cost of lost production.
Other automakers also jumped, with BMW up 1.1 per cent, Volkswagen up 0.6 per cent and Mercedes-Benz ahead by 0.4 per cent.
Also on the earnings front, Portugal's Galp Energia rose 1.7 per cent after raising its core profit target and announcing that it plans to find a partner to develop a promising oil discovery off Namibia.
NEW YORK
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq reached new record highs on Monday, bolstered by gains in megacaps as investors geared up for the week's big tech earnings, while the prospects of fresh trade deals also boosted sentiment.
The S&P 500 advanced by 0.6 per cent, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.5 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved 0.5 per cent higher to just 1.28 per cent below its all-time high.
Verizon gained 4.1 per cent after boosting its annual profit forecast. The stock also drove up the communications sector, which emerged as the top gainer among other sectors.
The spotlight was on Google-parent Alphabet and electric-vehicle maker Tesla, whose results this week will kick off the 'Magnificent Seven' earnings parade, and could set the tone for Wall Street.
Shares of Alphabet rose 2.1 per cent, while Tesla dipped 0.2 per cent. Both stocks have lagged their peers so far this year. – Additional reporting: Bloomberg, Reuters
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The presence of staff did not constitute the provision of care – an important issue for planning reasons – the residents were provided with private beds, 'and no bunk beds are used', it said, according to Ward's report. About a fifth of the residents stayed for a year and a third for six months, the company said. 'The property is more a typical house rather than a homeless hostel,' Ward summarised the company as saying. During his visit, Ward 'noted that several rooms had additional bedspaces compared to that shown on the plans' and 'the vast majority of rooms are shared, including the use of bunk beds'. One room, described as a storage room in the plans, 'was in use as a bedroom accommodating several bedspaces', he said. 'I do not concur that the use is consistent with typical residential uses or a typical house as suggested by [Brimwood].' Although the precise nature of the development was 'difficult to define', Ward decided it would best be classified as a hostel akin to 'a residential club, a guest house, or a hostel (other than a hostel where care is provided)'. He found the accommodation was not of sufficient standard to be suitable for long-term accommodation for homeless people. ABP found in favour of the residents. That was in June 2023. However, the building is still being used to provide emergency accommodation to homeless people. This is because, according to the council, Brimwood can still rely on the earlier section five decision that the change of use was exempt from requiring planning permission. 'After a thorough assessment of all relevant information, the planning enforcement section determined that no material change of use had taken place, resulting in the closure of the enforcement file,' the council told The Irish Times. A request for a comment from Brimwood was met with no response. 'We spent about €4,000 to €5,000,' said Antoinette Coll, one of the local residents who together funded their successful appeal. 'We are all shocked and dismayed [that nothing has changed]. Our understanding is that we would have to go for a judicial review next, but we couldn't afford that.' Horner said that, as a representative of the north inner city, she is deeply concerned about the concentration of emergency accommodation in the north city area. 'But I also recognise that it would be absolutely disastrous from a humanitarian perspective if deeply vulnerable people were to lose the emergency accommodation they have.' [ We need to confront the reality that the housing shortage can't be solved Opens in new window ] The intense pressure on the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE) and the council is exacerbated, she said, by the fact that other local authorities often send homeless people to Dublin to seek accommodation. The DRHE 'are the responder not just for Dublin but really for the whole country because, time and again, other local authorities outsource problematic emergency homeless accommodation to Dublin'. The history of the Drumcondra Road property exemplifies 'a very unvirtuous circle where the availability of affordable accommodation is being converted into homeless accommodation and the very accommodation that might provide the stability that people need in life is disappearing'. 'Instead they are ending up in emergency accommodation which, everybody knows, is deeply damaging for people to be spending time in.' In a 2020 letter to the council in relation to the Drumcondra Road property, the DRHE said it was meeting local residents but 'it is not prudent or practical to initiate local consultation on projects like this one prior to us acquiring/leasing such properties'. Controversy and division quickly develop and put the projects in jeopardy, it said, resulting in more homeless people ending up on Dublin's streets. The executive, the letter said, puts a strong emphasis on how accommodation facilities are managed and, as a result, the 'level of complaints and problems after these facilities open and settle in, have been very low'. 'We were not anti-homeless people or anything like that,' Coll said. 'We understand the emergency need. But council policy is supposed to be about phasing out the use of private providers [of emergency accommodation].' The executive, Horner said, is trying hard not to open more emergency accommodation in the north city area, but is under great pressure. 'The homelessness crisis is far beyond their making, yet they are the responder not just for Dublin, but for the whole country.' [ This is what we need to do in Ireland if we want stable, affordable house prices Opens in new window ]
