Financial stocks play key role in market's upward move

A strong performance from financial stocks and the recent rally on Wall Street were the key factors behind yesterday's upward move in the Irish market.However, dealers said the market was running up in fairly thin volume and industrial and second-line stocks had been left behind."The interest is focused totally on the financial stocks. The market is being mainly driven by overseas investor interest in the two main banks and other financials," one dealer noted.The financial index soared by 2.4 per cent, leaving the general index, down 0.60 per cent on the day, trailing far behind.The rally in Irish financial shares was supported by a strong start on Wall Street following Wednesday's rally and general strength in the European banking sector.The Dow Industrial Average's rally for the second day in a row on Wednesday set the tone for European bourses and markets in Britain, France and Germany forged ahead yesterday. But worries that Asia and Japan's financial troubles could yet hamper corporate fortunes in western economies were likely to keep the lid on any near-term advance in share markets, dealers said.In Dublin, AIB gained 20p to £10.25, Bank of Ireland surged by 41p to £14.15 while Anglo Irish Bank added 7p to 191p. Irish Life firmed by 20p to 655p and Irish Permanent was up 10p to 845p.But industrials did not show the same sparkling form. CRH shed 5p to £10.30, Smurfit edged down 2p to 210p, Waterford Wedgwood dropped a penny to 97p while Kerry Group was unchanged at 995p.Second-line activity was very subdued and failed to get a lift from a steady stream of corporate news. Industrial holding group DCC was unchanged at 645p despite upbeat comments from chief executive, Mr Jim Flavin at the annual meeting. Mr Flavin said DCC was budgeting for continued growth in the current financial year and had achieved its budget for the first two months of the year. He also said DCC was actively pursuing a number of acquisition and development opportunities in its four core areas - food, energy, healthcare and computer services.Irish Continental Group's share price failed to respond to interim results showing an improvement on the year-ago period and strong growth in all areas of the business. The company also announced the acquisition of a $40 million high speed ferry for the 1999 season but the share was steady at £12.20.IWP was also unchanged at 430p after announcing that its £60 million bid for Jeyes Fluid had been declared unconditional in all respects.Meanwhile, Independent director Mr Brendan Hopkins exercised 12,000 options at a price of 131p per share on June 23rd. He then sold the shares to his pension fund at 410p, realising a paper profit of £33,480. Independent closed down 10p at 400p yesterday.