Irish, European shares rise

The Iseq index is trading up more than half of one per cent today with building materials group Readymix, Bank of Ireland and drinks maker C&C among the top performing stocks.

Readymix was trading at 25 cent at lunchtime, up 8 cent or 47 per cent on good volumes, having today announced it was involved in discussions about a possible takeover.

Bank of Ireland, which British financial adviser Collins Stewart issued a positive note on earlier this week, is trading at just under 65 cent, a rise of almost 4 per cent on the day.

Irish Life and Permanent was also in positive territory this lunchtime, but AIB had shed half of one per cent falling to €0.41.

C&C gained 2.7 per cent this morning and is trading at €3.21 on reasonable volumes.

Despite announcing it expects to record full year profits, before exceptional costs, Aer Lingus shed half of one per cent.

Other stocks struggling on the Dublin market this lunchtime included bakery group Aryzta, drug producer Elan and Independent News and Media. The index was at 2725.90 (up 16.45 points) at 1pm.

In Britain, the FTSE 100 index was up 71.84 points, or 1.2 per cent, at 5,733.43. The index has not traded at as high a level since the end of April.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 1.2 per cent to 265.58 at 12:51 pm. in London, rebounding from a slide of 0.3 per cent.

Additional reporting - Reuters