Buoyant morning for ISEQ

The ISEQ index of Irish shares rose 54.47 points to 6795.3 today.

Among the stocks driving the upward march was Elan, boasting a 31% hike in share value to €8, an increase of €1.90.

The rise was down to the news this morning that a safety evaluation of multiple sclerosis (MS) and Crohn's disease drug Tysabri in MS patients resulted in no new confirmed cases of potentially fatal progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) - a disease of the central nervous system.

Elan and fellow pharmaceutical company Biogen had previously reported three confirmed cases of PML, two of which were fatal.

Though Elan's rise in value was the most dramatic of the morning. There was a significant gain too for business support services company DCC, up 60c to €18.95.

Kerry Group was also trading up, with a 5c rise over its opening prices. That performance follows yesterday's news of Kerry's purchase of UK chilled ready meals company Noon for £124m (€179m).

Mining group MinMet saw little reaction to its sale of Swedish gold mine Bjorkdal and remained unchanged at 2c.