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ISEQ treads water, busy week ahead

Monday, September 10 12:54:23

The ISEQ dipped slightly this morning after last week's rally on the back of commitments from the ECB to buy bonds to stem the eurozone crisis as investors cashed in ahead of a German ruling on the euro zone's new bailout fund.

By 12:45, the ISEQ was down 2.18 points to 3,259.72.

Global stocks and the euro dipped today as investors cashed in some of last week's sharp gains ahead of a German ruling on the euro zone's new bailout fund, Dutch elections and potential new stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The European Central Bank's statement last week that it was prepared to buy an unlimited amount of strained euro zone government bonds pushed European shares to a 13-month high and the euro to a four-month high on hopes it could mark a turning point in the bloc's 2-1/2 year crisis.

Shares in Origin Enterprises rose 20c to E4.20. In the pre-close update from Associated British Foods this morning the company said its Frontier business, a competitor of Origin in the UK, continued to trade well. In particular, it noted that high crop prices underpinned good farm profitability which has resulted in strong demand for inputs such as seeds, fertilisers and crop protection products. "Origin Enterprises will release its FY12 results on Wednesday, September 19th. In its Q3 update in May, Origin saw an underlying growth in sales of 8pc, with the core agronomy business performing well. The strong performance within the core agronomy business was partly offset by more challenging conditions in the Valeo Foods associate. Overall, we anticipate modest eps growth but with strong underlying momentum in the core agronomy businesses," said Goodbody's.