The Irish market participated in an equities rebound today as investor risk appetite recovered across global markets.
The Iseq index advanced about 0.8 per cent to 2,923.06, reversing some of the losses incurred during Monday's wide-spread sell-off after Standard & Poor's fired a warning shot across the bows of the US economy.
Positive earnings from a number of major global corporations - including Goldman Sachs which beat estimates quite comfortably - helped entice buyers back into equities today and this had a ripple effect for the Dublin exchange.
Drugs manufacturer Elan continued to power ahead for a second day after its multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri received a boost yseterday when European regulators approved updated labelling. The stock rose almost 4.7 per cent, or 26 cent, bringing it to €5.78.
Dual-listed exploration company Petroneft Resources enjoyed a boost after Dolmen Securities set a new share price target of £1.18 for the stock. It jumped just under 2 per cent on the London market to 55 pence on decent volume.
Building materials giant CRH bounced around for much of today's session, fluctuating in a range of €15.40 to €15.72. By the close it had settled at €15.54, a gain of five cent on the day.
Overall the Irish market was relatively thinly traded.
"Net net it was generally very quiet across the board," one Dublin broker said. "Volumes were very light."
National benchmark indexes rose in all of the 18 western European markets. France's CAC 40 added 0.7 per cent, the UK's FTSE 100 rose 0.5 per cent and Germany's DAX gained 0.2 per cent.
Additional reporting: Bloomberg