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ISEQ closes lacklustre day barely moved

Wednesday, October 03 17:34:27

The ISEQ made only very modest gains today as Europe's markets await solid news that Spain will formally seek aid and as data shows the continued weakness of the Irish labour market.

The index was up 4.56 points to 3,304.18.

European stocks pared early losses and turned flat this morning, as banking stocks rallied on expectations that Spain will soon request a bailout, offsetting worries about Chinese economy following grim macro data.

Meanwhile, there was a modes fall in the numbers signing on the Live Register in September but this made no difference to the overall weakness of the labour market with unemployment staying at 14.8pc.

Ryanair rival, EasyJet has issued its Q4 IMS statement, upgrading its profit before tax guidance to £310-320m. It will brief later today on its allocated seating and digital strategy. EasyJet had previously guided profits in the £280-300m range, assuming cost per seat, ex-fuel, increasing 1-2pc for the second half of the year (year-end is September) and revenue per seat broadly in line with Q3 (Q3 was up 2.8pc on a reported basis and 4.7pc on a constant currency basis). The upwardly revised guidance is due to improved revenues with revenue per seat guidance now +5-5.5pc for the six months to end-September from low-to-mid single digits. The cost performance is broadly in line (+1.5-2pc). Given the currency movements on reported basis, revenue per seat is likely to be 2-3pc and cost per seat, ex-fuel, will show a 2-3.5pc reduction. Shares in Ryanair rose 3c to E4.50.

Paddy Power's stocks closed flat at E58.95. Sportingbet, a takeover target of William Hill, has released full-year results to end-July 2012. Core EBITDA came in at £46m, in line with consensus expectations of £46.5m. Net debt at the end of July was £63m. Looking at the regional split of earnings, approximately 75pc of group EBITDA came from Australia (£34.8m); Europe accounted for £11.0m; while emerging markets accounted for £5.3m. Central costs came in at £4m.