Source: RTE.ie

Shares in AIB are up 5% in opening trade this morning in Dublin, while Bank of Ireland shares have gained over 3% as investors give their first response to Friday's results of stress tests on the European banking sector.

Overall, the Dublin market is up over 0.5%, while other European markets are also higher. The London FTSE has gained 0.3% while the Frankfurt and Paris markets opened over 0.5% stronger.

Some of the major UK banks are higher with Lloyds Banking group and Barclays up about 2.5%.

Both big Irish banks passed the tests designed to test their ability to withstand future economic shocks. The health of their capital reserves was shown by the tests to be below average.

But the Central Bank opted to apply tougher standards to the Irish banks regarding potential property losses and that appears to have cheered the markets.

Seven German, Greek and Spanish banks failed the tests but market sceptics said that more should have failed and that investors would not be convinced by Friday's results.