The Irish stock market ended higher, driven by a strong performance by the leading stocks following Tuesday's sparkling session on Wall Street. However, the bulk of the action was confined to the main banking and industrial stocks as interest in secondline shares proved subdued.

Continued turbulence on foreign exchange markets and uncertainty in international stock markets failed to dent enthusiasm for the top Irish stocks with the financial index gaining 1.38 per cent although the general index ended a more modest 0.14 per cent higher.

Europe's top bourses closed mostly higher yesterday but a weak start on Wall Street and a jittery foreign exchange market took the shine off what might have been a glittering session.

Share markets in Frankfurt and Paris started the day with solid gains thanks to a 117-point surge on Wall Street the previous day. But a nearly 40-point decline by US blue chips and worries that a soaring dollar could further upset faltering Asian economies stopped the European advance in its tracks.

On the Irish market, AIB gained 15p to 1005p, Bank of Ireland was 14p firmer at 1374p while Irish Life added 14p to 635p and Irish Permanent firmed 15p to 835p.

In the industrial sector, CRH gained 8p to 1035p, Avonmore Waterford was up 10p at 295p, Kerry Group was steady at 995p while Waterford Wedgwood also ended unchanged at 98p, having dealt up to 101p earlier.

Smurfit did not share in the general advance, however, losing 7p to 212p while Ryanair, which announced that its 1998 employee share options are being granted at 500p, the mid-market price on June 22nd, lost 6p to 490p.

Secondline stocks had a duller day although Heiton dealt down in size, traders said. It slipped to 190p but later closed at 195p, a drop of 5p on the day.

Property group Dunloe, which announced that Mr Dafydd Jones had resigned as a non-executive director of the company with immediate effect, was steady at 34p.