Shares surged by more than 2 per cent yesterday, lifted by a strong performance in other European markets after a good overnight showing on Wall Street. The ISEQ index more than recouped Wednesday's 1 per cent loss as it powered ahead to closed 80 points or 2.15 per cent higher.

Most of the leading stocks advanced with some logging strong gains on a quiet domestic news day. Dealers said sectors that had been hard hit of late showed the greatest signs of recovery. Irish Life & Permanent shares, for instance, added 55 cents, or more than 6 per cent, to €9.25 as the sector rebounded from the beating it has taken of late.

Ryanair, which has also suffered in recent days, was up by 43 cents, or more than 8 per cent, to 5.53.

AIB gained 21 cents to 12.78, Anglo Irish Bank was up by 16 cents to 6.43 but Bank of Ireland managed a more modest gain of four cents to €9.49 in heavy volume of six million shares. However, dealers said the bank's rolling share buyback programme may have flushed out sellers, prompting some of the recent weakness.

The bank said it acquired a further 500,000 shares on Wednesday at €9.54 per share. But the buyback will have to come to a close on March 25th when the bank enters its closed period.

Other stocks to benefit from yesterday's rally included CRH, up 15 cents to 12.85, Galen, which added 17 cents to 4.93, and Independent News & Media which gained 11 cents to 1.29.

IAWS added 20 cents to 7.15 as it benefited from its better-than-expected first-half results while elsewhere in the food sector, Greencore added five cents to €2.30 and Kerry Group was up by 20 cents to €11.65.

Fyffes traded in good volume, with more than two million shares changing hands, although the share price added only one cent to €1.26.