TRADING in equities on the Irish Stock Exchange in the first half of 2006 was €65.8 billion — up 20% over the same period in 2005.

CLOSE to 80% of trading in the shares of new companies that joined both IEX and AIM in the past 12 months takes place in Dublin.

The capitalisation of the IEX market has more than doubled to €1.17bn since the market was launched one year ago, according to the Irish Stock Exchange.

Shares in AGI Therapeutics plc, a specialist pharmaceuticals company, began trading today on IEX, the Irish Stock Exchange’s specialist market for small and medium-sized companies.