Most of day's activity continues to be centred on market leaders

The Dublin market put in a vigorous performance yesterday despite the more mixed fortunes of its European counterparts, which lost some of their gains in the afternoon when Wall Street slipped back.

While the 1.35 per cent increase in the ISEQ was welcomed by all, most of the activity continues to centre around the leaders, with second liners attracting little attention. Moreover, with volatility continuing on Wall Street, dealers says it is unclear if the Dublin market will sustain its bullish form in the coming weeks.

Much of the increase in the ISEQ was attributed to the charge forward by AIB, which is back at the levels it achieved a week ago after announcing its interims. In strong volume trading, it gained 20p to close the day at 1150p.

"Unlike many other stocks on the market, there is significant buying interest out there for AIB which is driving it upwards once again," said a dealer.

Bank of Ireland was also traded in high volumes, which has not been the case in recent weeks. It eventually closed at 1300p, after a slight fallback during the afternoon.

Smurfit made a gain of 5p to close at 165p, although it had hovered around 167p earlier in the day. The company announced yesterday that it has begun discussions with CVC Capital Partners about the possible sale of its interest in the Condat mill in France. However, the potential sale price is unclear at this stage.

The resurgence of CRH continued, albeit at a reduced speed. It put on 4p to close at a respectable 900p in moderate volumes of trade.

Irish Permanent rose by 10p to 860p, as the market looks ahead to its interims next Tuesday. Before that, dealers do not expect any dramatic price gains. "Irish Permanent does not tend to be like AIB where you have large leaps forward before we get to see the figures," said a dealer.

As far as predictions are concerned, Goodbody stockbrokers has forecast pre-tax profits of between £28.5 million and £29.4 million at Irish Permanent. This would be an increase of between £3 million and £4 million for the half-year.

Powerscreen nudged up 4p to 97p as it announced that its financial results will not be issued until September 22nd. A dealer said that some market sentiment in favour of the company has returned. "If the asset disposal programme works out the company might finally turn the corner," he added.

The other main movers on the day were Anglo Irish Bank, up 3p to 185p, DCC, down 5p to 550p, Hibernian Group, up 10p to 670p and Kerry, up 6p to 826p.

One other upward mover was Bula, which finally moved forward from 1p to 1.125p, after weeks of controversy concerning the Jim Stanley affair.