Tech stocks lead Irish stock market rally

The tech sector has led the rally on the Irish stock market this afternoon and troubled pharmaceutical company Elan has also bounced back slightly following dramatic losses over recent days.

Today's rebound has been led by the tech sector with shares in Iona Technologies and Riverdeep up 65 cents and 21 cents respectively in morning trading.

After making early gains, AIB shares have fallen back slightly while Bank of Ireland have seen its share price rise 7 cents to 1187.

CRH is also adding its support to the bounce gaining 25 cents to 1545, although it still has seen its value fall by almost 20 per cent in the past month.

Ryanair has been having a good morning too following the announcement that it saw a 34 per cent jump in passenger numbers in June compared with the same month last year. The stock moved back towards the €6 mark, putting on 15 cents to 590.

More than €2 billion was wiped off the value of Irish shares yesterday as Dublin, in line with other markets worldwide, was deserted by worried investors. The Irish index fell to levels last seen in October 1998.

Mounting concern over corporate debt, company earnings and the growing list of accounting scandals took their toll on all leading international exchanges.

By lunchtime in London the FTSE had recovered some composure to move 61.9 points ahead at 4454.5. Dealing was initially buoyed by a strong finish on Wall Street last night and most European exchanges were trading higher. But few experts believed the gains were the start of an upward trend, and said the rally instead appeared to be driven by bargain hunters. The Bank of England left interest rates on hold and the widely expected move also failed to stir the market. The hi-tech sector and heavyweight banking stocks were all benefiting from today's upward push. Most analysts expect a slide of some kind later in the day as there's little corporate news to boost shares and US markets are closed for the July 4th holiday.

They say the threat of terrorist action on the other side of the Atlantic is still keeping people out of the market.