The stock market gained nearly 3 per cent, helped by a strong performance from European stock markets and a 10 per cent jump in the share price of pharmaceutical group Elan in the US.

Elan stock gained 9.9 per cent to #57.87 after the company announced on Tuesday that it had obtained positive results from phase two testing of its Antegren drug for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease.

Dealers said other leading stocks also had an active day with Bank of Ireland rising by 2.9 per cent to #10.27, while Ryanair was up 1.5 per cent at #10.96 after hitting #11.20 earlier in the day.

Eircom, helped by a strong performance from European technology and telecom stocks, added 3.3 per cent to #2.51 while CRH gained 1.4 per cent to #19.16.

Among Irish technology stocks, Baltimore surged by more than 12.5 per cent to 400-1/2p in London. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein named Baltimore among its top 10 picks from among the pan-European emerging companies.

Shares in mobile phone software group Parthus rose by more than 10 per cent in London to close at 207p after the company published fourth-quarter results which were ahead of market forecasts. Sales were up 77 per cent to $9.3 million and licence and royalty income almost trebled to $5.1 million.

In Dublin, losers included Smurfit, which slid three cents to #2.03 and Fyffes, which was down six cents at #1.00.

Meanwhile, IFG Group said that Jupiter Asset Management, which held an 11.86 per cent stake in the company, had reduced it to 10.76 per cent.