THE Dublin market moved to a new all time high in substantial trading, reacting positively to the strong overnight performance on Wall Street and the positive response on British, continental and Far Eastern markets.
Whether the Irish market consolidates will depend largely on the performance of those international markets.
Financials showed the best improvement, with Bank of Ireland up 11p on 465p, just short of its 470p all time high. Other financials were also well bid by both domestic and overseas investors and AIB was 8p stronger on 352p, Irish Life was up 5 1/2p on 243p, Irish Permanent gained 3p to 389p, Woodchester was up 2 1/4p on 172 1/4p and Anglo Irish gained 2p to 64p.
Smurfit was the main focus of interest among the industrials after the 10 per cent jump overnight to $10 by JS Corp. Although JS Corp weakened fractionally in trading yesterday, Smurfit still dealt up 7p to 156p in what was the group's best day's trading for many months. CRH closed up 2 3/4p on 472p.
The only major negative on the day was Greencore which dropped 7p to S33p after a large line of, stock - on offer throughout the day - finally found a buyer.
Elsewhere among the second liners, progress was mainly upwards with Clondalkin up 13p on 368p, DCC up 10p on 205p, Grafton up 5p on 405p and Kerry moving to an all time high with a 10p gain to 500p.
Gilts did little ahead of the publication of the exchequer borrowing figures, although Irish gilts did outperform the British market with indications of funds moving out of Britain into Irish gilts.
The scale of the Exchequer Borrowing Requirement undershoot caused gasps among dealers but the 4.30 p.m. publication of the figures meant that European fund managers had already left their desks.
Trading today should see strong demand for gilts, although any general weakening in international bond markets may restrict gains.
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