Chinese stocks plunged by 8.5% overnight - local media there is already calling today China’s ‘Black Monday.’
This volatility is expected to spread to European markets throughout the day - minutes after the the FTSE 100 started trading it dropped 175 points.
Almost €7.4 billion was wiped of the value of companies listed on the Irish stock exchange between Wednesday and Friday of last week.
Over the weekend, IMF officials said that it is “totally premature” to say that China is facing an economic crisis.
______________________________________________________
FBD has released its second quarter results - it has recorded a half-year loss before tax of €96 million.
The group plans to streamline its operations, focusing more on its core insurance businesses.
As of the end of trading last Friday the company’s stocks were down by 40 percent for the year to date.
FBD was rocked by the sudden departure of its former chief executive, Andrew Langford in July.
Interim chief executive Fiona Muldoon described today as a "difficult day for FBD, its shareholders and its staff.”
______________________________________________________
UTV has confirmed it is in talks to sell its television assets.
It released a statement in response to media reports saying that it is considering selling these properties to ITV.
UTV has already warned that losses at UTV Ireland for the year are set to be higher than expected - it now predicts that the shortfall will be £11.5 million sterling.
The company is due to report quarterly results later in the week.
______________________________________________________
There is some positive business news on this gloomy Monday morning - Kingspan has released its half-year results - its trading profit is up by 61% to €111.7m.
Revenue jumped 39% to €1.24bn.
Acquisitions contributed 26% to its sales growth.
The company has had strong performances in Europe and the UK, it says that Irish sale volumes also improved as the market “slowly recovers”.
______________________________________________________
AIB could be in a position to return between €3 and €4 billion to the State before October’s Budget.
The Irish Times reports that an internal audit by the bank suggests that it could repay a significant amount to theState before its stock market flotation, which is likely to happen in mid-2016.
The bank received some €20.8bn in bailout funds during the financial crisis.
AIB’s financial position has improved significantly - it returned pretax profits of €1.1 billion last year.
______________________________________________________
Vodafone Ireland plans to invest €7 million in developing its data services in Dublin.
The company has already invested €25 million in its Irish data centre.
20 new jobs are expected to be created in Dublin - mainly in technical roles.
This is part of a broader effort by the company to expand its cloud services, and hosting capacity in Europe.
