Agri shares – Kerry shares touch off record highs

Shares in Kerry Group closed trading on Thursday at a new record-high of €97.35.

The shares in Kerry are up 2% in the week and almost 5% since the start of 2018.

Shares in Kerry Group, which first commenced operations all the way back in 1972 and launched on the Irish stock market in 1986, continue to close in on the €100 mark.

Edmond Scanlon, chief executive of Kerry Group, recently hinted that the company has a significant pipeline of acquisitions in the works which could come to fruition in the second half of 2018 or early 2019.

“We typically guide to spend our annual free cashflow on acquisitions, which is about €400m. But I think this year our spend on acquisitions could be almost double that number.

"We have a really strong pipeline of acquisitions ahead of us, although it’s very much down to timing with these things,” said Scanlon.

International shares

Elsewhere, shares in UK supermarket giant Tesco have fallen almost 4% this week to £2.45 on the back of new data showing food inflation in the UK hit a seven month high in August of 1.9%. The devaluation in sterling since the Brexit vote has made trading conditions very difficult for the UK retail sector as UK consumers have less disposable income to spend.

Oil markets rallied strongly this week with the price of Brent crude oil rising more than 4% in the week to just under $78/barrel, which is a three-month high.