Iseq rises for first time in seven days

Renewed concerns about inflation pushed European shares off the day's highs by midday while gains in the mining and technology sector helped keep the broader market in positive territory.

In Dublin, the Iseq broke into positive territory following six successive days in the red and at 12.30pm the market was up just over 1 per cent, at 6020.

Among the main movers were recruitment firm CPL which this morning issued a profit warning. As a result its shares fell over 30 per cent to €2.50. Other stocks in negative territory were C&C group, down 1.2 per cent at €4.143 and Glanbia which saw its shares fall just under 1 per cent to €4.85.

However, there were more gainers than losers in early trade and the main financial stocks were all ahead. Irish Life and Permanent led the way with a gain of over 3 per cent to €11.59 and was followed into positive ground by AIB which added 0.5 per cent to €12.84.

Anglo Irish bank and Bank of Ireland were both marginally ahead on €7.90 and €8.81 respectively.

Airlines Ryanair and Aer Lingus were also up this morning as the market digested the latest oil price rises. At 12.30pm Aer Lingus shares were up over 2 per cent at €2.03 while Ryanair stocks added a little over 1 per cent to reach the midway stage at €2.67.

At 12.02pm, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.6 per cent at 1,288.89 points, after JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported results that were broadly in line with expectations.

A relatively upbeat outlook from Intel late last night and strong earnings from LG Electronics helped European tech stocks, where Nokia rose nearly 4 per cent, Infineon gained 5.7 per cent and Alcatel-Lucent rallied 2.5 per cent.

Dutch ASML, which supplies equipment to most of the world's top chipmakers, rallied nearly 3 percent in spite of having posted a sharp drop in first-quarter orders and issuing a downbeat outlook.