Corporate earnings reports that were not uniformly good hurt European equities markets on Tuesday, with the FTSE Eurofirst 300 dropping 0.9 percent to 1,326.70. A losing start on Wall Street did not make things any better for the European exchange.
The banking sector, like the corporate reports, were mixed on the session. Irish banks did fairly well. Allied Irish Banks were up 1.5 percent to €19.22 after it reported that its pre-tax profits were up by 47 percent in the first half of the year. This result helped Bank of Ireland to add 1.2 percent to €7.54. Anglo Irish Bank ended the day even at €11.42. The European banking sector as a whole, however dropped 1.2 percent for the session. Deutsche Bank fell 4.7 percent to €86. While the German bank’s net profit was up 30 percent in the second quarter overall, revenues in its equity investment unit were down by 50 percent.
Among utilities, Gaz de France was 1.7 percent lower to €27.38. Meanwhile, French utility Suez dropped 2.5 percent to €31.65. Suez’s first half sales were up by 10.2 percent, but did not meet predictions.
Ryanair declined by 3.2 percent to €7.54 even though its quarterly profits were up by 80 percent, much more than had been expected. The decline came after the low-cost airline’s chief executive said that the outlook for the rest of the year was “cautious”.
In the pharmaceuticals sector, Elan dropped 0.3 percent to €11.69 despite an early gain of more than 3 percent after its latest results showed that losses were down in the second quarter.