Star performance for Smurfit

The strong gains on Wall Street and follow-on gains in London had only a limited impact on the market, although share prices generally were stronger. The star of the day was Smurfit, which jumped 9 1/2p to 228 1/2p after a bullish trading statement from industry rival Georgia Pacific drove the US packaging up strongly and sent the JS Corp share surging through the $20 barrier to close on $20 5/8. Dealers reported strong demand for Smurfit shares, and NCB has put a short-term target of 245p on the share.

CRH withstood a heavy fall by industry competitor RMC, which tumbled 4 per cent after warning about its German operations. CRH was unchanged on 724p.

Irish Life was 4p higher on 346p although there were mixed views in the market about the quality of the group's half-year results, while Irish Permanent was 3p higher on 610p.

Elsewhere, telecom minnow ITG jumped 10p to 175p, Gaelic remained firm and closed on 3p sterling. Heiton was up 3p on 173p, while Kingspan was 10p higher on 1210p. Ivernia was 1p higher on 98p after reporting an increase in reserve at Lisheen.

There was little change in gilt prices and, although the market stayed in positive territory, it marginally under-performed German and British bond markets. Dealers said there was some mild profit-taking after the strong gains of earlier in the week.