While confidence in the Japanese financial sector plummeted as Yamaichi collapsed and rumours of hidden bad debts swirled around the markets, Irish banking shares continued to go from strength to strength.
Anglo Irish followed Bank of Ireland's example and posted what one trader described as a "sparkling" set of results, showing a 26 per cent rise in annual pre-tax profits to £30.3 million.
The immediate outlook for Irish bank earnings remains positive with the economy expected to remain on a strong growth path.
But the banks have been substantially re-rated relative to non-financial shares and analysts note they remain cyclical stocks.
With the bad debt cycle expected to resume at some point, many believe it may be hard for the ratings gap between the financial and non-financial sector to narrow much further.
Although there is widespread recognition that the management of loan portfolios has improved beyond measure, analysts say the market won't be convinced until it sees how the sector performs in a downturn.
The Irish banking sector also faces a number of challenges post-EMU. Lower interest rates are likely to put further pressure on margins while the loss of non-sterling foreign exchange earnings will also be felt.
After a nervous start to the week following the collapse of Yamaichi, the Irish stock market avoided catching Asian flu and ended the week in a healthy state, some 20 points higher.
A resilient performance from the United States and other European stock markets and more good news on the corporate earnings front helped protect the Irish market from the fallout in Asia, dealers said.
Among those companies reporting strong results during the week was engineering group Unidare, which beat market expectations with a 17 per cent improvement in annual profits to £6.9 million and gained some 30p to close the week at 235p.
Adare Printing matched forecasts when it announced a 39 per cent increase in half-year pre-tax profit to £7.2 million.
Traders said some of the leading industrial stocks, which may have been oversold of late, also bounced back.
Building materials group CRH benefited during the week from some switching out of Redland, which accepted a takeover offer from French rival Lafarge while Independent Newspapers, which has under-performed the Irish market by 21 per cent over the past three months, gained following a recommendation from Davy Stockbrokers which described it as an "undervalued growth stock".
Smurfit made a brief sortie above the 200p level but quickly dipped back to close the week at 195p. Traders reported some speculative retail buying interest from Britain on the expectation that some sort of announcement from the company is imminent.
Dealers say the market is in a good state for the Donegal Creameries debut.
The stock is likely to be bid up strongly from its placing price of 165p when it begins trading on December 12th.
