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ISEQ slips on economic uncertainty

Tuesday, January 29 12:50:12

The ISEQ slipped lower again this morning amid uncertainty over prospects for the economy with the Central Bank cutting 2013 GDP projections and investors awaiting some key US data due later today.

By 12:45, the ISEQ was down 14.15 points to 3,540.35.

The Central Bank this morning cut its growth forecast for this year in terns of GDP to 1.3pc compared to an earlier forecast of 1.7pc, citing a slowdown in the economies of our main export markets. Its first quarterly bulletin of the year said that for 2012 as a whole, real GDP is estimated to have increased by about 0.7pc.

William Hill has released a pre-close trading update for Q4 and FY12 (53 weeks) this morning reporting FY12 net revenue+12pc yoy (Goodbody forecast +10pc) and operating profit of £330m +20pc yoy (Goodbody: £312m +13pc). The main area of beat was the online business, and while sporting results helped, the underlying growth was very positive. Paddy Power's shares fell 39c to E61.70.

NWF Group, a small peer of DCC Energy in the UK (500m litres versus DCC Energy c.5bn), has reported an operating profit of £0.5m for its Fuels division, an improvement on the break even outturn last year, reflecting " a return to more normal market conditions". For the six months to September DCC Energy reported operating profit of E23.4m (+25pc). It is encouraging to see that market conditions remain stable in Oct-Nov, the beginning of the key trading period for DCC Energy. We will be interested to hear how the recent cold snap colours the outlook of DCC management when it releases its Q313 IMS on February 6th. DCC's shares fell 10c to E24.04.