Amryt Pharma soars on drug trial news

THE Irish overall index of Irish shares gained 24.36 or 0.37pc to close Tuesday at 6,586.51.

The big winner of the day was Amryt Pharma which gained 16.1pc on the back of the news that the company is to begin phase three trials on a new drug to treat rare skin condition epidermolysis bullosa.

Irish oil and gas exploration group Providence Resources was up 7.6pc, while agri-food company Glanbia rose by 2.3pc.

The days laggards were Kenmare Resources, down 3.7pc, Irish Continental Group which lost 1.7pc and Ryanair which was down 1.5pc.

In Europe, shares also rose, boosted by strong results and deal-making across the region, recovering from the previous session’s sentiment-fuelled dip.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.3pc, with deals in focus as rumours of stake sales moved individual stocks, while criticism of the Tesco takeover dented wholesaler Booker.

Basic resource stocks led gains, up 0.8pc after suffering their worst daily losses in more than four months on Monday.

Wolseley was the top European gainer, up 6.3pc and hitting almost a decade high, after posting a 25pc rise in profit for its first half, driven by strong growth in its main market, the United States.

Portuguese oil company EDP rose 4.2pc after it said it would buy the rest of its renewable energy subsidiary EDP Renovaveis.

Portugal’s largest company also agreed the sale of its Spanish gas distribution network Naturgas to Nature Investments, a special purpose vehicle owned by a consortium of institutional investors.

EDPR jumped 9.4pc on the news, helping Portugal’s stock index outperform European peers, up 2.2pc.

Dufry, the Swiss airport retailer, gained 3.5pc after a report said Chinese conglomerate HNA was in talks to buy a stake.