The overnight rise on international stock markets allowed Irish share prices to notch up some modest gains. But Wall Street's inability to consolidate on an opening flourish and its move back into negative territory as the Irish market closed does not augur well for further gains when the Irish market resumes trading this morning.

Most of the leaders were firmer on the day, with AIB up 7 1/2p on 882 1/2p while Bank of Ireland gained 23p to £10.90. Anglo Irish Bank was 1p easier on 160p despite a glowing review from Panmure Gordon which uses feline comparisons to describe Anglo. "Irish kitten outpaces Irish tiger," says the Panmure review.

Irish Life was another financial stock to get the approval of a London investment with Merrill Lynch saying "buy" and setting a 12-month price target of 510p. The share closed 5p firmer yesterday on 450p

Elsewhere, CRH was 10p firmer on 802p, Smurfit was 1p firmer on 103p , although JS Corp was marginally easier on NASDAQ on $10 3/8 p. The corps's prospective merger partner, Stone, finally stopped the rot and was trading marginally firmer on $8 but is still at a level which reflects doubts in the market about the merger, at least as it is currently constituted.

Amogn second-liners, Abbey was 20p higher on 270p, Grafton was 50p weaker on £13.25 after announcing a small UK acquisition while Independent also lost ground, closing down 15p on 250p. Marlborough suffered a sharp reversal, falling 45p to 185p, and giving a strong indication why Parc pulled its flotation. Powerscreen did not trade in Dublin, but dealers seemed to take some comfort from the positive comments with the results and pushed the share ahead 15p to 82p sterling in London. Icon was the best of the Irish NASDAQ stocks with a $1.56 jump to $31.69.