The Irish market closed 1.3 per cent stronger at 6,435.15 on the back of strong performance from Elan. The pharmaceuticals group, whose weighting accounts for nearly a quarter of the ISEQ, was €3 stronger on day on the back of favourable market sentiment and closed at €73.

In a relatively quiet day, the other big news came from Eircom following the surprise announcement from eIsland that it had reentered the battle to buy the telecom company. Eircom picked up more than 3 per cent on decent volumes, eventually ending four cents stronger at €1.30.

Financials also had an active day, but with no big price moves. Both Bank Of Ireland and AIB were eight cents up by the end of business, finishing at €11.70 and €13.20 respectively. Irish Life & Permanent was quite actively traded. It had backed off from recent highs but was reasonably firm yesterday, picking up 30 cents to €13.80. First Active bucked the trend for financials, losing two cents to close at €2.93.

Ryanair also enjoyed a reasonably active day's trading. Following some profit-taking after its results on Tuesday, the stock had been rallying since Thursday. It had a good run yesterday notching up a 25 cent gain to €12.25.

Also enjoying a good run was Fyffes, which gained three cents, and Smurfit, which was also up three cents.

Independent News & Media traded off a little on small volumes and lost five cents on the day to close at €2.35. Also down were Kerry Group, which lost 25 cents to €13.50, and CRH, which eased back 10 cents to €19.80.