HEAVY buying of the leading shares drove the Irish market to a new high yesterday and, with no sign that demand has been satisfied, further gains are likely when trading resumes today.
Predictably, the bulk of the demand was for the leading financial and industrial stocks, all of which closed well up on the day.
Smurfit continued its strong recovery and closed up 4p on 160p after peaking at 162p. Smurfit is now almost 11 per cent above its late December low of 146p, a rise that has coincided with an 18 per cent rise on Wall Street by JS Corp. CRH was 4p higher on 476p
Irish Life was the best of the financials, with the share closing 8p higher on 251p just 1p short of its all time high of 1994.
AIB gained 4p to 356p, Bank of Ireland was 3p higher on 468p while Irish Permanent gained 1p to 390p.
Activity in second liners was at a lower level, but Greencore regained its Wednesday losses with a 7p jump to 540p.
Fyffes was 3p higher on 110p ahead of Monday's e.g.m. to approve the £147.5 million sterling acquisition of the Geest banana business. Jurys gained 4p to 233p while Waterford Wedgwood was Vip stronger on 62p.
Gilts had an excellent day after the positive Exchequer borrowing figures. They were also supported by good credit growth figures released late in the day by the Central Bank.
Much of the overseas demand was focused on the 10 year gilt, allowing the NTMA to tap £100 million of the 2006 stock.
The 10 year gilt closed on a yield of 7.30 per cent from 7.37 per cent overnight, five year gilts were on a yield of 6.59 per cent from 6.67 per cent while the long dated 2015 gilt was yielding 7.46 per cent from 7.53 per cent.
