There is no doubt, but it has been a dismal start to the year for the Irish stock market. At least that would be the commonly-held view of the misfortunates that hold bank shares, never mind the serious unfortunates that bought stocks such as AIB at double the current price a year ago, not to mention those trusting individuals who bought shares - in addition to those they received free - when First Active floated 15 months ago.

But behind the pain being suffered by bank shareholders - and those poor bank directors whose share options have plunged in value and, in the case of First Active, are currently worthless - there has been lots of gain for a select group of public companies. Even the half million who piled into the Eircom flotation six months ago have at least the beginnings of a smile on their face as the shares finally show signs of life.

But the real winners are those who managed to get into the dot.com stocks such as Baltimore and Trintech, whose shares have soared into the stratosphere on expectations that they will be among the main beneficiaries of the e-commerce revolution.

Reports of the extraordinary growth in the paper wealth of John and Cyril McGuire, the bachelor brothers who run Trintech, have abounded in the past few weeks, while Dermot Desmond's good fortune to buy into Baltimore when the shares were worth peanuts (now worth more than £88 [€146] sterling each) has also produced a wealth of newsprint.

But the Internet revolution has also produced returns for some of the Irish super-rich, who only a few months ago might not have been associated with the Internet. Dr Tony O'Reilly, Mr Neil McCann and Mr Samir Naji have all seen their personal wealth soar as their shares in Independent, Fyffes and Horizon rocketed on the back of the technology boom. And Ryanair - which has launched its own dot.com bookings system - has also had a bumper start to the year, although the rise is more due to its excellent results than anything else.

First to Dr O'Reilly whose personal 28 per cent shareholding in Independent News & Media has increased in value from £367 million to £573 million since the beginning of the year. His decision to resume executive duties at Independent is one reason for Independent's rise in the past few weeks, but the main reason has been Independent's foray into the Internet through its Unison portal.

Lest anybody begrudge Dr O'Reilly the increased value of his Independent shares, let it be noted that whatever stake he still holds in Heinz has plunged from $45 a share to $35 in the past three months alone. Swings and roundabouts, as they say.

But one Independent director who must be regretting selling shares a few months ago is vicechairman John Meagher. Mr Meagher sold 600,000 shares last September at €4.70 each - if he had held onto those 600,000 shares he would now be almost £3 million better off, on paper anyway.

For the McCann family at Fyffes, the decision to set up its worldoffruit.com portal and its fruitXchange online trading system for the fresh produce industry has paid off handsomely. Until mid-December, Fyffes shares had languished for years, with investors apparently unimpressed with the group's strategy.

But then came the worldoffruits.com announcement and Fyffes shares was greeted by huge buying interest - to the extent that the McCann family's 9.8 per cent stake has more than doubled in value from £44 million to £106 million. Long-time Fyffes shareholder DCC could also not resist cashing in on the surge in the shares and by this week had sold most of its 10 per cent stake.

Mr Samir Naji's Horizon group is not an Internet stock, but that has not prevented it from becoming embroiled in the hysteria that has driven any sort of technology share to stratospheric levels. A few months ago when he floated his company, Mr Naji's 58 per cent of Horizon was worth £43 million; at the turn of the year that stake had risen in value to £113 million and by this week it was worth an astonishing £355 million.

Outside the technology sector altogether and not quite in the same scale of gains is Ryanair, whose shares have risen very nicely in the past few weeks. Dr Tony Ryan and his sons have seen the value of their 15 per cent stake rise from £207 million to £251 million, while chief executive Michael O'Leary can feel content with an increase in the value of his shareholding from £149 million to £181 million.

At the corporate level, the performance of the various shares in the first weeks of the millennium has resulted in a significant rejig of the Irish top 10 companies. Gone from number one down to number three is AIB which has given way to both Eircom and Elan. CRH has leapfrogged over Bank of Ireland into fourth place, while Independent is now challenging Smurfit for sixth place.