There were two big company reports dominating the European market agenda this Monday – with earnings published by big FTSE firms Ryanair and Randgold.
The Ryanair numbers give us an insight into consumer behavior and the airline industry as a whole. The budget airline is well known for being ruthless when it comes to competition and slashing prices and this factor has contributed to the dire numbers published to the city this Monday. Average fare price per passenger fell 17% year-on-year, to €33. This pushed post-tax profits for the quarter down 8% to €95m. However, the budget airline said it was cautious about the rest of the financial year, but profits would still meet expectations.
Another factor playing into this rather dismal report was Sterling weakness. The company’s CEO Michael O’ Leary said “We expect sterling to remain volatile for some time and we may see a slowdown in economic growth in both the UK and Europe as we move closer to Brexit.”
Another market mover this Monday was Randgold with some shiny results showing a 76% jump in fourth-quarter net profit, helped by higher gold prices and output. Shareholders were then greeted with more golden news that the gold miner will be raising its final dividend by 52% to 100 cents a share. Randgold's chief executive, Mark Bristow said the company's 10-year plan was to remain profitable at a gold price of $1,000 an ounce and to develop three new mines over the next five years.
Looking ahead to Tuesday. Overnight there’s the RBA interest rate decision, Japan’s leading economic index for December as well as industrial numbers due from Germany. Plus, it’s a week of trade data reports and first up its France, followed by both Canada and the US.
--- Written by Katie Pilbeam, DailyFX
