Some 4 million Irish shares were traded in the nine months to the end of September, up 22 per cent versus the same period a year ago, according to new figures published on Thursday.

Statistics released by the Irish Stock Exchange show the strong levels of trading in shares continued in the third quarter with 1.4 million equity trades executed on the ISE's electronic trading platform. This marks a 29 per cent rise on the third quarter of 2014.

The ISE said it had more than 34,200 securities from over 4,100 issuers in 80 countries on its markets at the end of September.

It said new debt securities admitted in the nine months to the end of September totalled 5,429, up from 5,078 for the same period last year and bringing the total numbers to more than 26,000 debt listings.

New debt instruments listed during the third quarter included a £400 million listing from food company Kraft Heinz and a €300 million one from Beijing Energy Investments. Others included a $575 million one from Mexico's federal electricity commission and a €500 million bond from Danske Bank's pension arm, Danica Pension.

The ISE said an additional 1,082 new fund classes were admitted in the first nine months of 2015, bringing the number of funds on the main securities market to 7,503, versus 7,367 for the same period a year earlier.

The Iseq index recorded an 18 per cent gain during the nine months to the end of September, reaching 6,167 points, compared to 5,225 at the end of December 2014.

According to the ISE, data on turnover and number of trades reveal a strong interest in Government bonds and treasury bills during the third quarter with turnover hitting €40.9 billion. Turnover was up 10 per cent compared to first nine months of 2014 to €201 billion with the number of trades, up 21.6 per cent versus the corresponding period last year.

Market capitalisation for Irish Government securities currently stands at €118.8billion, up from €110.3 billion at the end of last year.