Last night's spectacular rally on Wall Street carried through in early trade in Dublin this morning with the ISEQ climbing 72 points to 5,551. Most of the gain came from Elan which soared from euro 3.10 to 61.50.
The Irish American pharmaceutical company, the heaviest weighted stock in the index contributed 67 of the 72 point gain, brokers said. In the broader market trade was quiet with little corporate news coming out of Ireland today.
Food and travel shares continued their revival after being considerably oversold in the wake of the foot-and-mouth crisis. DCC added 5 cents to euro 18.15, Jury gained 45 cents to euro 8.45 and Golden Vale gained 5 cents to euro 0.77.
London reversed early gains by mid-morning today, following a profits warning from Autonomy, the British software company, which steered investors away from the volatile technology stocks.
The FTSE-100 index was down 36.7 at 5,585.1, having climbed 63.8 to 5,685.6 in the first hour of trade on the back of an overnight Wall Street surge.