Applegreen lower after share placing as Aryzta stocks soar

IRISH forecourt retailer Applegreen raised €46.9m on Friday via an 8,082,105 share placing.

The new stock represents approximately 10pc of the company’s issued share capital prior to the placing, and was placed by Goodbody and Shore Capital at a price of €5.80 per share.

Following the announcement shares in Applegreen fell by as much as 4.2pc and closed down 2.28pc at €6.05, having opened at €6.05.

Also in Dublin Aryzta gained strongly, to close up almost 6pc at €26.22 a share. That followed news the under-pressure bakery giant’s CEO and chairman had each bought around €100,000 of shares at the start of this week.

Shares in Providence Resources closed up 15pc at 6.90 cent each, after the exploration company confirmed it had received its $5.4m share of a $6.75m payment from Total linked to a drill licence option. The Iseq ISEQ ended the session up 0.81pc at 6,881.

Elsewhere, European shares ended with the best monthly gain this year on Friday, helped by a weakening euro – but uncertainty over the Catalan crisis weighed on Spanish stocks.

A weakening euro has taken pressure off Europe’s equities and especially the exporter-heavy DAX, helping investors find renewed enthusiasm for the asset class after the slow summer months.

Both the pan-European STOXX 600 and the eurozone stocks ended at three-month highs, up 0.5pc and 0.7pc respectively, scoring a quarterly gain after falling back in the second quarter.

Deutsche Bank analysts expect earnings for the STOXX to grow 11pc this year, with the pick-up in global growth and rebound in commodities more than offsetting the negative effect of the stronger euro.

Volkswagen fell as much as 4pc after it said it was increasing provisions for settlements in North America linked to its emissions scandal.