Shares in FBD Holdings rose a modest 2% to close to €9 after the insurer posted an overall profit of €50m for 2018.

FBD saw profits from writing insurance soar more than 40% last year to hit €63m. The strong results come despite gross written premiums falling marginally (€1m) to €371.5m last year.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, FBD CEO Fiona Muldoon said she was satisfied with volumes in its farm book following an initial shock with the entrance of AXA into the market in the summer.

She said the company has worked very hard to compete and hold on to its customers but acknowledged that the farm book had “lost marginal market share”. FBD claims to have 75% of the Irish farm insurance market.

Of the other listed agribusiness PLCs, shares in Aryzta (-3%), Greencore (-2%) and Kerry Group (-1%) all retreated slightly in the last week.

Shares in plastics group IPL Plastics, formerly known as One51, were down a little over 1% this week to C$10.65.

Shares in Donegal Investment Group gained 1% this week and are trading close to €9, while Origin Enterprise shares are up 2% in the week to €5.42.

On oil markets, the price of Brent crude oil is trading at $66.31/barrel this week.