German stock exchange operator Deutsche Boerse is to begin selling shares in publicly quoted Irish companies later this year.

The move will further open up the European market for companies on the Irish Stock Exchange.

This will increase Deutsche Boerse’s pan-European product offering from 86 securities to over 1,000.

The Frankfurt-based exchange operator said its new European trading platform, Xetra International Market (XIM), will add 700 securities by summer 2010 to its offering of French, Dutch, Belgian, Finnish, Italian and Spanish shares.

Boerse said it plans to also admit securities from Switzerland, Great Britain, Austria, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Portugal and Sweden as well as Polish shares by end 2010.