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News At One: David Murphy, Business Correspondent, says Friday's cut in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve came as a surprise
The growing confidence follows recent turmoil caused by nervousness in the US housing market.
In Dublin, the ISEQ gained slightly and London's FTSE also had a slight increase.
On Friday, the US Federal Reserve slashed a key US bank lending rate to help counter the credit market turmoil. The surprise move sparked a rebound on Wall Street and European markets.
This morning, most European markets were more than 1% ahead after strong gains last Friday.
In Hong Kong stocks were up 6% and 5% in Sydney.
Earlier, Tokyo's Nikkei index closed up 3% at 15,732, its biggest daily percentage rise since March 2002, and recovering from its biggest one-day fall in nearly six years on Friday.
Also on Friday, the Dow Jones closed up 1.8% at 13,079.
