THE Dublin market forged ahead yesterday, closing up 1 per cent on the day. Driven largely by strong performance on the international bond markets, financial stocks dominated much of the day's activities with the two banks hitting new all-time highs.

AIB gained 6p in active trading to close at 378p, while Bank of Ireland gained 8p to 510p, with dealers expecting some further gains on the back of current strong international markets.

Industrial stocks were fairly quiet, with third-quarter results from JS Corp, the US affiliate of the Smurfit group, making little impact. JS Corp reported a drop in pre-tax profits from $126 million to $38 million, a slightly better result than had been expected. Following the figures, Smurfit gained 2p to close at 170p.

The other leading industrial, CRH, ended the day unchanged at 620p.

In other company news, IAWS announced good full-year figures, with pre-tax profits up 14 per cent to £18.5 million. The share was not traded yesterday but last closed at 173p.

Greencore was fairly active, with the share gaining 9p in early trading. However, later in the afternoon it drifted back to close unchanged at 345p.

In the food sector, Avonmore put on 3p to 175p, Kerry gained 10p to 170p and Waterford Foods closed up a penny at 80p.

Other stocks on the move included Woodchester, up 5p to 215p, Readymix, up 4p to 121p and Independent, up 6 1/2p to 328p.

Despite the overall firmer tone in the market, Irish Permanent dropped a penny to 457p, Irish Life also closed down 1p to 257p while Unidare lost 5p to 170p.

Irish bonds gained ground yesterday but ended the day off their early highs in thin afternoon trading on the back of easier trading on the international markets.

The 8 per cent bond due in the year 2000 was up 15p at £107.20 to yield 5.84 per cent. The 8 per cent bond due in 2006 closed up 28p to £108.20 to yield 6.71 per cent.