The ISEQ reopened strongly after the bank holiday weekend to post a 65 point gain to 5,934.99. Banks led the index higher with AIB and Anglo Irish making strong gains ahead of Bank of Ireland's results on Thursday.
AIB gained 33 cents to euro 13.02, Bank of Ireland added 20 cents to euro 11.04 and Anglo jumped 17 cents to euro 4.27.
CRH also gained ground after strong US construction data released last Friday. Eircom also moved higher adding 6 cents to euro 2.59 thanks to a strong performance in London by Vodafone.
In London the FTSE 100 pared earlier gains to close up 16.1 at 5,886.4 after a weak opening on Wall Street.
British Telecom remained the centre of attention amongst telecom stocks - after most newspapers speculated on the likely launch of its record-breaking rights issue on Thursday.
Stocks on Wall Street fell at midday today after a report showed that worker productivity fell for the first time in six years, but technology shares were flat after Morgan Stanley upgraded computer networking giant Cisco Systems.
The Dow Jones fell 65 points at 10,869 as the market nervously awaited Cisco's first quarter results due after the close this evening.