Brexit: Iseq soars on hopes UK to stay in EU

Irish shares soared at the fastest daily pace in more than six years as amid a rising expectation across financial markets globally that the UK will remain in the EU.

The Iseq index soared by 272 points, or 4.55 per cent, to 6,263.94, marking its biggest percentage increase since May 2010 months before the Government headed into an international bailout.

Paddy Power Betfair led advancing Irish stocks, jumping 7.8 per cent, while Ryanair added 5.5 per cent, CRH gained 5.2 per cent and Bank of Ireland advanced 4.2 per cent.

All major western-European markets climbed, with the UK's benchmark FTSE 100 Index adding 3.1 percent, while sterling surged after after bookmakers' odds suggested the chances of a Leave vote faded since the murder of a pro-European UK MP Jo Cox on Thursday.

A poll over the weekend showed 45 per cent of voters backed the Remain camp, while 42 per cent were in favour of a so-called Brexit.

"We're kind of going back to that risk-on again – it's more an unwind of the panic we saw last week," Mark Kepner, a managing director and equity trader at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. "It seems to be because of what's changing in the vote. The market was starting to prepare for a Brexit and it seems the polls in the UK have changed since late last week."