Irish banks were “friendless and loveless” today as a second tranche of loans was transferred to the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), a Dublin-based trader said.
The average ’haircut’, or discount, applied to the latest wave of loans acquired by Nama from four participating banks was 48 per cent. In the case of one institution, Irish Nationwide, loans were discounted by more than 72 per cent. These haircut rates were described by one trader as “horrendous stuff”.
Consequently banks were much weaker on the day. Bank of Ireland moved down by more than 4 per cent, or 3 cent, to 66 cent. AIB slipped about 3.5 per cent, or 3 cent, to 85 cent.
Irish Life & Permanent, which is not involved in Nama, was more or less unscathed, closing fractionally down at just below €1.58.
Meanwhile, budget airline Ryanair is due to release results tomorrow morning, and brokers expect the numbers to be closely watched by the market. The stock lost a little ground in advance of this announcement, falling more than 1 per cent, or 4 cent, to just under €3.78.
Building materials group Grafton put in a poor showing today despite issuing a fairly upbeat trading update last week. The stock closed down 4.4 per cent, or 12.5 cent, at €2.70.
Paddy Power was one of the few names to finish in positive territory, adding more than 1 per cent to finish at €26.99.
Otherwise, the Irish market was characterised by the light volumes which have become the norm for Monday mornings and Friday afternoons.
The Iseq index of Irish shares has softened in recent sessions, and fell again today. It closed down more than 1 per cent yesterday to just over 2,820.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 fell 0.2 to 0.5 per cent.
Additional reporting - Reuters