Shares in Irish recruitment group CPL Resources rose almost 7 per cent yesterday after the group delivered a 79 per cent increase in pretax profit in the six months to the end of December.

Chief executive Anne Heraty said the company, which was founded 16 years ago as a pure IT recruitment agency, and has expanded into all industry sectors, is benefiting from the strength of the Irish economy and the high levels of employment across the country.

Profit before tax in the first-half of the company's fiscal year surged to €4.6 million, from €2.6 million in the year-earlier period, according to figures released yesterday. They also showed that revenue rose by 34 per cent to €66.3 million, while gross profit, which represents net fee income, was 41 per cent stronger to €13.1 million.

Ms Heraty said that the company had seen improvements in all parts of its business.

Net fee income from CPL's permanent placement business grew by 50 per cent in the six months to the end for December, compared with the same period in 2004, with all divisions performing well. However, the results were helped in particular by an increase in demand for IT, telecoms and finance professionals. Contractor and temporary fees increased by 33 per cent, reflecting growth in demand for non-permanent staff in all areas, including office management and customer service.

Ms Heraty said the group's new executive search and selection consultancy had also performed well, although with only a 1 per cent contribution to overall revenue, it remains a small part of the company's business.

She said CPL was keen to continue developing all areas of its business and would consider making an acquisition overseas to expand the business geographically. Ms Heraty said that the second six months of the group's financial year, which ends on June 30th, had started well and that predictions for strong growth in the Irish economy were a good sign for the recruitment business overall.

Most analysts were positive on the results, which came in ahead of forecasts, with Goodbody saying it planned to upgrade its 2006 earnings forecasts by about 20 per cent on the numbers.

CPL will pay an interim dividend of 1.4 cent. Group directors placed 5.1 million shares - or 13.9 per cent of the stock - in the market yesterday. Until now, only 16 per cent of the company's stock was tradeable on the market and dealers welcomed the additional liquidity. The shares rose by 25 cent, to close at €4 yesterday.