Whats up with the Emerald Isle this year?. Ireland seems to be going thru some tough economic difficulties based on the Irish Stock market or the Irish stocks trading in the US stock exchanges.

The European media says that Ireland is having a big boom in terms of industrial activity. New building are under-construction all over the place and that Ireland is gonna be the major cultural,tourist capital of the EU in the coming years. This seems to contradict with the way Irish stocks have been performing this year.

The two Irish banks (IRE, AIB) are in the negative territory year to date and so is the closed end fund “The New Ireland FD” (IRL). The Bank of New York ADR Index for Ireland is down -17.28% YTD. Interesting to see that the Germany index is up a cool 26.88%. Another high-flying Irish stock that was brought back to Earth at a sustainable PE ratio is the C&C; beverage group.

Both the Irish banks and the closed end fund pay good dividends. Since these stocks have been beaten up with the rest of the banks, it may be a good time to review these and pick up a few for the long-term.

Lets have the “Luck of the Irish” soon

-David