Bank of Ireland has displaced AIB as the second-biggest company on the Irish stock market, after heavy trading pushed it sharply ahead yesterday. With more than 5.8 million Bank of Ireland shares trading, the shares closed up 40 cents on #11.80 with dealers reporting heavy demand from overseas institutions.

At this closing price, Bank of Ireland has a market capitalisation of #11.81 billion and has now overtaken AIB, whose market capitalisation at yesterday's #13.11 closing price is #11.58 billion.

The two big banks combined still amount to less than the value of the market's biggest stock, Elan, which has a current value of #23.5 billion.