The Irish stock market ended slightly higher as the market held its nerve despite Tuesday's heavy sell-off in Tokyo following the collapse of the Yamaichi Securities brokerage. Traders said the market was heartened by Wall Street's response as the Dow shrugged off a 5.1 per cent drop in Tokyo's Nikkei index and got off to an upbeat start. European stock markets, which fell by 2 to 3 per cent on Monday, also proved reluctant to extend their losses. "The FTSE fell 35 points but, in the context of recent moves, that was quite small and markets generally held in well," one dealer said.
In Dublin, the ISEQ index of Irish shares gained 11.23 points or 0.3 per cent to 3,725.32 with most of the leading stocks making modest gains.
"People have known for months that Japan was facing a banking crisis," one dealer said. He added that Irish stocks had little or no exposure to Asia which helped insulate the Irish market from the crisis sweeping the region.
Both banks gained ground with AIB adding 11/2p to 580p while some late buying interest pushed Bank of Ireland up 8p to 895p.
Elsewhere in the financial sector, Anglo Irish Bank slid 3p to 113p after reporting a 26 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £30.3 million for the year to end-September.
Dealers said the stock had enjoyed a good run recently and some profit-taking was inevitable.
Traders said Smurfit had a volatile day, racing to 202p after an overseas buyer came into the market in the morning looking for stock. But the share price later slipped back to end the day 4p higher at 194p.
Building materials group CRH also gained 4p to 775p.
Green Property was unchanged at 410p after announcing a £60 million rights issue to help fund development programmes in Ireland and Britain. The issue, which is fully underwritten by the Investment Bank of Ireland, involves an offer of two new shares at 350p per share for every seven shares held.
Dealers said the market understood the basis for the rights issue, which was not a total surprise given the company's high level of gearing.
Newly-formed food group Avonmore Waterford, which said it was axing 750 jobs in Ireland and 550 jobs in Britain, shed 5p to 255p.
The rationalisation will cost the group £159 million and will mean that it reports losses for 1997 of more than £100 million.
