Financial stocks lead continuing surge to climb to another record

IRISH shares rose more by more than 1 per cent in value yesterday, with a broad spread of companies gaining. Dealers said the upward swing was driven by the main financial shares.

"We're going through a very buoyant period for equities generally and Irish stocks are benefitting," said one analyst. "The mood has been lifted by record gains on the FTSE and Wall Street, and there's a lot of interest out there."

There was little financial data yesterday to upset the optimistic tone, dealers said; the earlier release of US retail sales for April showed a drop of 0.3 per cent, in line with most forecasts, which helped cool recent concern over the imminence of an aggressive interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve and adding to market confidence.

Allied Irish Banks rose 16p from a start of 485p to a new high at 501p. Bank of Ireland, ahead of its annual results to be released today, rose 4p, from 740p to 744p. Analysts said today's results have been widely anticipated, with expectations built into the share price.

Anglo Irish Bancorp saw considerable interest, rising from a start of 86p during the day, but finally falling to close down 1p at 85p. Irish Life climbed 4p over the session, from 345p to 349p. Hibernian rose 5p to close on 340p, and Irish Permanent stayed steady on 635p.

Paper and packaging giant Smurfit saw heavy trading, finishing 2p higher on 172p. The other leading industrial, CRH, also rose, gaining 1p to 678p. Independent Newspapers fell 8p to end on 335p.

In the food sector, Kerry climbed 5p to 655p. Avonmore, still trying to arrange a merger deal attractive enough for the shareholders of Watertord Foods, also rose, by 1 1/2p, from 238 1/2p to 240p. Waterford Foods itself rose a penny over the day, closing at 97p. Golden Vale rose 1p to close at 66p, while Greencore fell back by 3p to 342p on the eve of news from the European Commission about the size of the fine it faces for anti-competitive practices by its Irish Sugar subsidiary in the 1980s.

Industrial holding company DCC continued its upward run, closing after a gain of 7p at 355p, while Clondalkin rose 5p to end on 635p.

Analysts said there was also interest in "quality second-liners", pointing to Grafton, up 35p at 950p, Heiton, up 4p at 122p, and Irish Continental, up 20p at 725p.