ISEQ rises 47 points in morning trading

The ISEQ was up 47 points, nearly 1%, to 5147 just before 11am boosted by evenly spread gains.

The two main banks were both on the rise. AIB added 18c to €13.48 and Bank of Ireland gained 11c to €11.40.

In the pharmaceutical sector movers included Elan up 22c to €6.70 and United Drug was up 5c to €2.55. Northern Ireland drug group Galen was unchanged ahead of first quarters results tomorrow.

CRH added 30c to €17.50. The construction company's 14 stores in the Intergamma franchise in the Belgium market is seen as a possible bid for Dutch DIY giant Vendex.

Grafton was up 5c to €5.90 following weekend reports that the company has bought a 7.7 acre site in Navan for €10.5m.

Housebuilder Abbey was up 25c to €7.90.

Personal care company IWP was down 2c to €0.32 after announcing plans to sell off non-core Skiffy Group for €28m, to distribution group Bunzl, which will be used to reduce debt.

Gresham moved up 11 to €1.33 after indications on Friday that a takeover offer of around €1.45 was in the pipeline.

Financial services firm IFG was busy, up 3c to €1.25 and another busy stock, Independent News & Media, was up 5c to €2.16.

In London the FTSE100 was up 25 to 4427 just after 11am.

British Airways moved up 8p to £2.96 after announcing pre-tax profits of £125m (€182m) for the final three months of 2003, up from £25m (€36m) a year earlier.