The Irish stock market proved resilient yesterday, despite jittery performances in key international markets, although domestic volumes traded were quite low.

The ISEQ index of shares shed a modest 0.18 per cent despite a fall of 1.5 per cent on the London FTSE 100 and an equally dismal performance on Wall Street.

US stocks posted losses in early trading as the anthrax scares in Florida, New York and Nevada weighed on sentiment.

A bleak corporate picture and downgrades in the semiconductor sector did little to ease frayed nerves.

On the domestic market budget airline, Ryanair's share price plummeted 35 cents to €9.90 as concern remained over the future performance of global airlines following the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11th.

In the financial sector, the price of shares in both Irish banks seesawed, with Bank of Ireland ending the day unchanged at €9.55 while AIB dropped five cents to €11.00.

Leading industrial CRH continued to put in a steady performance and ended the day up seven cents at €17.90, while Smurfit added five cents to €2.05, benefiting from positive data on containerboard in the US.

Pharmaceutical stock Elan, which accounts for a quarter of the Irish index although it is mainly traded in the US, saw its price jump 13 cents to €53 as the demand for drugs is seen as generally outside the tentacles of the general market malaise.

Two new stockbroking houses commenced trading on the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) yesterday - Independent UK broker Tullett & Tokyo Liberty (Equities) Ltd and SunGard Global Execution Services Ltd - bringing the total number of ISE members to 22.