Kerry Group has more than the Sam Maguire to smile about

The Kerry Group had more than the return of the Sam Maguire to smile about yesterday as the shares dealt up to a new all-time high of 800p.

The tightly-held stock rose sharply on the back of good investor demand with analysts playing down any link between the new high and the group's supporting role in the winning of the All Ireland. On the day, Kerry rose by 40p, rapidly moving from 760p to close at 800p, which no doubt will help the celebrations in the Kingdom.

But Kerry wasn't the only stock making a good run, with the financials and CRH again notching up good gains.

While trading was a bit slower than on Friday, the Dublin market largely managed to make further progress yesterday, as weaker sterling and the general feel-good factor in the Irish market held investor interest.

Among the financials, Bank of Ireland was very much in favour, sending the stock 3p better on the day to close at 845p. In contrast, AIB was unable to move in line with the market, dropping 7p to 603p. But analysts remain confident that the overall financial sector can still make further gains matching the recent surge in value of British financials.

Irish Life continued to make further progress, going 2p better to 362p. The insurer, together with Kredietbank, its partner in the purchase of the Hungarian bank Kereskedelmi es Hitelbank, will shortly be investing a further $60 million in the bank. And Irish Permanent jumped 5p to 640p.

The leading industrials had a mixed performance with CRH gaining 6p to close at 770p, while Smurfit dropped 2p to 228p. Clondalkin also had a good day, adding 10p to 600p. Independent was also in demand and ended the day up 3 3/4p at 400p.

In the food sector, Fyffes gained 5p to 100p, Golden Vale went a penny better to 79p, while Avonmore was unchanged at 275p and Greencore gained 4p to 323p.

Other stocks on the move included, Green Property, which gained 10p to 375p, McInerney up 7p to 69p, while Ryanair was unchanged at 370p.