Dragon soars over 4% to lift Iseq ahead of Easter break

Iseq: 2,956.42 (+19.13) Settlement date: April 28thDECENT GAINS for exploration company Dragon Oil and building materials giant CRH lifted the Iseq index by 0.7 per cent ahead of the four-day Easter holiday yesterday.

Dragon Oil surged 4.2 per cent to €6.37 after the company said it plans to increase production as much as 20 per cent this year on new pipeline infrastructure.

CRH rallied 3.7 per cent to €16.42, a gain of 59 cents, after Goldman Sachs added the group to its “conviction buy” list and analysts at JPMorgan Chase began its coverage of the company with an “overweight” recommendation.

Paddy Power rose 79 cents to €32.30, a rise of 2.5 per cent, on a day in which fellow bookmaker William Hill performed well on the London market after announcing a 21 per cent rise in first-quarter profit, led by online sports betting.

Advances in crude oil prices took the wind out of the airline stocks, with Ryanair slipping 1.3 per cent to €3.33 and Aer Lingus falling 2.38 per cent to 82 cents.

The biggest faller, however, was pharmaceutical group Elan, which released a fresh safety update on its drug Tysabri.

It indicated that nine new cases of the brain disease PML were confirmed in Tysabri patients in March, bringing the total to 111, with 22 fatalities.

The incidence of PML case reports has increased in 2011 compared to previous years, analysts at Davy noted.

Elan’s stock finished the day down 7.5 per cent at €5.29, losing 43 cents compared to the previous session’s closing price.

Paper and packaging group Smurfit Kappa fell 6 cents to €9.29 a day after its peer Stora Enso published an earnings update indicating a positive outlook for industrial packaging demand.

Origin Enterprises fell 1.3 per cent to €3.80, despite a healthy quarterly update from Nutreco.