The Dublin market took its lead from European bourses yesterday with the first liners particularly strong.

Merger mania in Europe and the strong showing of Wall Street on Friday night were the catalysts for a 2 per cent rise in European stock market indices.

Vodafone's bid for Air Touch lit up the telecoms sector throughout Europe, although Dublin lagged behind.

Dealers said because there are no major telecommunications stocks on the Dublin market, buyers looked elsewhere, particularly to London where the FTSE threatened to set a new record.

Wall Street was closed because of Martin Luther King day, so European markets were able to partially disregard the fortunes of the real which is now to be floated by Brazilian authorities.

One of the strongest performers on the day was AIB which rose by almost 4 per cent to close at €17.03 (£13.41), up from €16.40 (£12.92). Bank of Ireland was subject to lower volumes of trade, but crept up from €18.45 (£14.53) to €18.60 (£14.65)

Overall financial shares increased by 174 points on the day, although Irish Life was unchanged and Irish Permanent was barely up.

Dealers said the market could have gone higher if there had been some specific corporate news. Despite this there was a large number of buyers in the market, said dealers. "It has all been about catch-up today, with New York on a holiday it gave a chance for European markets to regain some ground," said a dealer.