An early surge on Wall Street and a good performance in key Asian stock markets helped boost international investor confidence and push Irish share prices higher in healthy trade yesterday.

A 90-point gain in London and an early rally on the Dow, fuelled by weaker-than-expected economic data which reinforced the view that US interest rate policy would remain on hold in the near-term, helped Irish shares to gain over a percentage point.

The ISEQ index closed 44.73 points or 1.19 per cent higher at 3,806.25.

The financial index gained 1.80 per cent to 4,675.27 while the general index rose 0.82 per cent to 3,325.26.

Dealers said activity was concentrated in the leading stocks and the two main banks were well bid with very little selling interest.

AIB jumped 17.5p to 607.5p and Bank of Ireland gained 13p to 925p while Irish Life was up 7p at 352p.

Anglo Irish, which reported a 26 per cent rise in annual pre-tax profits to £30.3 million last week, began trading ex-dividend and lost 2p to 111p.

Goodbody Stockbrokers says it has upgraded its forecasts for the bank for the year to September 1999 by around 6 per cent and is now looking for earnings per share of 11.3p.

"Taking into account its price/ earnings discount to the overall sector and its higher yields, we continue to rate it a buy," Goodbody said.

Among industrial stocks, CRH firmed by 5p to 795p while Smurfit gained 3p to 198p in a late sterling trade. Greencore, which releases results on Thursday, also added 3p to 305p while Kerry Group firmed by 30p to 770p.

Dealers reported renewed interest in Fyffes following a report in a UK newspaper that Mr David Herro, the Chicago-based fund manager who initiated the boardroom revolt at Saatchi & Saatchi, now holds a stake of about 3 per cent in the vegetable distribution group. The share price was up 2p at 104p.

Avonmore Waterford, which announced details of its rationalisation programme last week, was steady at 245p. The group said it plans to cut 750 jobs in Ireland and a further 550 in the UK.