With gains by Elan outweighing continued weakness among financial shares, the Irish market notched up its fourth successive daily gain although turnover remained very low with little institutional interest.
Elan has been boosted by the "approvable letter" from the FDA for its Ziconitide pain relief drug and the shares dealt up €1 to €48.85 in Dublin. The bulk of Elan trading, however, is on the NYSE where the shares were trading almost 4 per cent higher by midday on $47 3/4 in sizeable trading.
Otherwise trading in Dublin was weak, although Eircom managed a five cent gain to €2.80 despite the continuing KPN/Telia uncertainty. Bank shares were weak with AIB eight cents lower on €9.37 while [B O]Bank of Ireland edged one cent lower at €6.60. Sizeable trading involving almost two million shares saw Anglo Irish fall three cents to €2.26.
Elsewhere, Fyffes remained very weak and lost another cent to €1.08 while Glanbia was another food stock to be out of favour with a four cent drop to €0.71. Barlo, however, jumped five cents to €0.84 while ITG lost 43 cents to €10.97 as Prudential disclosed that it recently sold 500,000 shares to take its stake down to 1.26 million shares or 3.49 per cent. CRH was unchanged on €18.90.
Among the explorers, Bula's basket of 10 shares regained ten cents to €0.70 after heavy falls earlier this week, while Tullow lost 11 cents to close at €0.80 although the shares were virtually unchanged in London at 55p sterling.
