The National Treasury Management agency has today raised €6 billion in its largest bond sale for a decade, as it moves to boost its finances to fund what Tánaiste Simon Coveney said would be significant deficits caused by the coronovirus pandemic. | Penneys has become Ireland's most valuable brand for the first time, after recording a 9% rise in brand value to €2.4 billion last year. The retailer has overtaken AIB in second position (and a brand value of €1.9 billion) and long-standing leader, Guinness, whose brand value fell by 24% to €1.9 billion last year. | Aldi says it has lifted quantity restrictions on nearly all its products. The supermarket says the move follows a return to more consistent levels of trading across its stores. The are a small number of exceptions, the company says, which will continue to have a four unit restriction placed upon them, including for example hand wash. | The number of new users and the volume of online shopping continued to increase over the last week as people became even more confined to home due to the Covid-19 crisis. New data compiled by digital agency Wolfgang Digital found that between March 30 and April 5, internet based sales traffic rose overall by 19% compared to the period prior to the coronavirus pandemic reaching Ireland. | Online trading platform Plus500 nearly doubled its customer base in the first quarter of 2020, driving a six-fold rise in revenue, as a market sell-off drove a boom in financial betting by retail traders locked down at home. Plus500 is one of the easy access mobile trading platforms which allow customers to make leveraged bets on financial markets from oil to currencies. It said revenue for the quarter ended March 31 rose an astounding 487% to $316.6m compared to a year earlier. | Business output in Dublin stagnated in the first quarter of the year as business activity grind to a halt in March, new figures show today. The latest IHS Markit Dublin Purchasing Managers index fell to 49.9 from 53.7, ending more than seven years of continuous output growth in Dublin. A figure under 50 signals contraction, while over 50 signals growth.   |||