Aggressive buying in Elan shares this morning, coupled with a strong performance from airline stocks, lifted the Dublin market into positive territory this afternoon.
At 1.03pm the Iseq was trading up 130 points, or over 2 per cent at 6,469.
Traders said Elan was attracting interest in Dublin and London this morning and by 1pm was trading up almost 6 per cent €18.46.
Airline stocks enjoyed a positive morning's trade and Aer Lingus shares were trading ahead almost 7 per cent on €1.92 while Ryanair stocks were almost 6 per cent ahead at €3.13.
Financial stocks were also in positive territory today with Irish Life & Permanent up over 4 per cent on €10.70; AIB shares added 1.4 per cent to €13.784 while Bank of Ireland stocks were ahead marginally at €9.02. Anglo Irish Bank shares were marginally in positive territory at €9.02.
Market heavyweight CRH shares were also up at the mid point, trading ahead over 2 per cent at €25.10.
Building materials group Readymix which yesterday estimated it would report a €3.9 million loss during the first three months of the year was trading down almost 11 per cent on €1.25, on light volumes.
European stocks were broadly higher around midday at a level not seen since late February, led by rallying banks while airlines rose on merger talk and after a recent drop in oil.
Investors were braced for US monthly jobs data, due at 1.30pm, for insight on prospects for the world's largest economy.
Spanish lender Banco Santander added 4.4 per cent while Telefonica rose 2.6 per cent as Spanish stocks with big exposure to Brazil got a boost from news that Standard & Poor's raised its rating on that country to investment grade.
French car maker Renault gained 4.6 per cent after data showed strong French car sales for the company in April and after Nissan, in which Renault has a significant stake, reported resilient US April sales.
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