Market Report:Elan, Tullow Oil, Smurfit Kappa, Irish Life & Permanent and Kerry were the main winners on the Irish Stock Exchange yesterday as a quietly positive day for the Iseq index of Irish shares left the market up nearly 1 per cent.
Elan was the beneficiary of strong trading in the US, where technical data published by Biogen may have helped the stock. It climbed more than 5 per cent on the Irish market, adding 57 cent to close at €11.70.
Buyer interest in paper and packaging company Smurfit Kappa helped the stock to jump by more than 4 per cent to €20.88, despite a lack of stock-specific news.
With the oil and gas sector especially strong across Europe yesterday, there were high volumes in Tullow Oil on the London market, with 17 million shares traded. In Dublin, the stock climbed more than 5 per cent to close at €5.74.
The other two performers of the day both saw healthy trading immediately following their agm statements. An upbeat message at Kerry's agm in Tralee led to healthy trading, with the stock rising almost 2 per cent to €22.18.
Irish Life & Permanent, which said it expected its loan book to grow by mid to high-teens in percentage terms, pushed through the €20.00 barrier. It finished the day at €20.05, up 63 cent - a rise of more than 3 per cent.
The rest of the banks all had a positive day, with Bank of Ireland proving to be the best of the rest with a 1.1 per cent climb to a closing price of €16.50.
There was reasonable volume in DCC with a few buyers helping the stock add 57 cent to its share price, which closed at €25.52. Ryanair, however, had another bad day, dropping more than 1 per cent to close at €5.29. The airline traded as low as €5.20.
