Global stocks dragged down by AI insecurity, but oil companies stay on the up

Global shares were largely dragged down by a drop in trading confidence for artificial intelligence-linked companies, carrying on the fallout of the resignation of Nvidia ex-chief executive Jensen Huang. The energy market, however, saw stronger returns as supply insecurity caused by war in the Gulf drove oil prices higher.

Dublin

The Iseq All-Share index decreased 0.24 per cent on Friday to close at 14,976.07.

Typical Iseq high-flyer Ryanair saw its share price descend 0.39 per cent to close at €25.70 per share, coming back down to earth after continuous day-on-day growth in share price last week after the airline’s chief executive signalled an expansion of the company next year.

Bank of Ireland ended the trading week in the red, too, down 0.69 per cent to €19.39 a share. Retail banking rival AIB fared slightly better, with its share price increasing 0.17 per cent to close at €11.63.

Minerals miner Kenmare Resources was the day’s top gainer, up a clean 3.33 per cent to €3.10 a share, meanwhile nutrition business Kerry Group jumped 0.99 per cent to close at €101.70 as the demand for weight loss drugs matches the rise in the company’s profile.

London

The London Stock Exchange fared slightly better, albeit with mixed results. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index ended the trading week in the green, up 0.36 per cent higher than Thursday’s closing price. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index, however, was down 0.45 per cent by close of markets.

The British energy sector saw an improvement from declines registered the previous day, with oil and gas giants Shell and BP up 1.51 per cent and 1.39 per cent respectively, as investors bet on the price of oil from the Middle East continuing to rise amid uncertainty over supply.

High street brands, however, ended the week in the red – with bookshop retailing WH Smith down 4.67 per cent and shoe manufacturer Dr Martens falling 3.88 per cent following on from Thursday’s nearly 15 per cent collapse in share price after investors learned of last year’s pre tax losses.

Europe

Shares across the Continent largely declined following sliding share prices in companies typically boosting Europe’s leading indices. Blue-chip Stoxx 50 ended the traded week 0.16 per cent down from Thursday’s closing price, while its mid-cap equivalent Stoxx 600 rose marginally, up 0.01 per cent.

Dutch semiconductor company ASML Holdings suffered significant losses, with its share price dropping 2.76 per cent, as the wider AI-linked market fell off in traders’ assessment of the market.

Much of the banking sector saw slightly smaller losses, with France’s BNP Paribas down 0.12 per cent and Germany’s Deutsche Bank dipping 0.57 per cent. Spain’s Santander, however, was up 0.07 per cent.

New York

Early trades on Wall Street were mixed, as downward trends in artificial intelligence-linked stocks weighed heavily on indices that we generally pulled into the green by promising inflation data that eased investors’ macroeconomic concerns.

The fallout of the headline-marking and market-shaking resignation of Nvidia’s ex-chief executive Jensen Huang rippled across indices and impacted other chipmaking companies too. The company, seen to be a global leader in AI development, was down nearly 4 per cent from Thursday’s closing price.

Microsoft’s stock largely recovered from the collapse in investor confidence of the software giant, following a widespread outage of its cloud platform that paralysed potentially millions of users’ online activity for hours. Just before midday New York time, it was up 0.07 per cent from Thursday’s closing price, after it fought to restore its digital services.

New York’s top indices were a mixed bag by midday, too: the S&P 500 was little changed, but the Nasdaq 100 fell some 0.40 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose around 0.30 per cent.