CRH and Elan enjoy strong day on ISEQ

The ISEQ moved up over 1% today, adding 70 points to 5506, with strong gains in heavyweights CRH and Elan.

The financials put in a decent performance, with AIB closing up 13c at €12.73, with over 2.3 million shares traded.

The bank's Polish subsidiary, Bank Zachodni, saw revenue jump 15% and pre-tax profits surge in the first quarter to €26.8m.

Bank of Ireland moved up 13c to €10.63 and Anglo closed unchanged at €13.45. Irish L&P added 8c to €13.80, though with a low volume of shares traded.

Glassware company Ardagh jumped 8c to €1.20 after its annual results showed a profit, while Donegal Creameries added 35c to €4.50 after good results released earlier this week.

Recent dollar strength and good first quarter results from Mexican cement producer Cemex, which is amongst the top three producers in the US, saw building stock CRH jump 48c to €18.25.

Other gainers on the day included Pharmaceutical firm Elan, up 69c to €19.89, as investors continued to show strong confidence in the company's product pipeline.

Gresham moved up 5c to €1.25. The hotel said it has received a revised bid approach from a consortium of investors with the new terms involve a lowering of the proposed bid price to €1.30 from €1.35 and a reduction in the acceptance pre-condition to 54% from 80%.

The board and the consortium are moving forward with a view to the consortium announcing a firm intention to make an offer during the week beginning May 10, Gresham said.

Barlo was steady at €0.48 after Sean Quinn's Sarcon said today it had received 82.2% backing for a takeover bid for the radiator and plastics group.

Independent News & Media was busy with over 3.6 million shares traded and closing up 4c to €1.98.

Adding to the upside today Iona was a mover adding 30c to €5.80.

Meanwhile the FTSE100 was nearly unchanged this evening, closing down 1.8 points to 4570.

Tobacco firm Gallaher saw shares close down 2.46% after Deutsche Bank cut its rating to "hold" from "buy" as hopes of a bid from rival cigarette producer BAT waned.

The world's second largest alcoholic drinks firm, Allied Domecq, also weighed heavily on the main index with shares down 2.31% after Lehman Brothers, ABN Amro and Merrill Lynch dropped their "buy" recommendations after its results yesterday.

Elsewhere in Europe the DAX in Frankfurt closed down 1.1% and the CAC in Paris moved up 0.68%.

On Wall Street the Dow Jones is nearly unchanged while the technology-laden Nasdaq is up 0.54% lifted by a solid earnings report from Microsoft today.