ALTHOUGH there was strong buying interest on the Dublin market yesterday a lack of decent sized offers, rendered the market relatively quiet, dealers said.

Several stocks attracted strong overseas interest. The biggest jump of the day was in New Ireland's stock which rose by 75p to 900p.

However, dealers said the stock is fairly illiquid and was up on very low volumes, of around 2,000 shares.

New Ireland, which is 83 per cent owned by French insurer UAP, has seen its share price climb on the back of speculation that UAP may buy up the outstanding minority shareholding.

Of the other financials, Irish Permanent performed best. Its share price rose 5p and closed at 392p. Irish Life was down 1p on Wednesday's price at 253p. Bank of Ireland didn't trade and AIB was down 2p at 335p.

There was a flurry of activity in CRH which finished up 11p at 637p. Smurfit was unchanged at 170p.

Irish Continental Group was up 10p and ended the day at 560p. Waterford Wedgwood is continuing to perform well and gained 1p on the day closing at 84p.

Greencore was up just 1p at 326p while Fyffe's was down 2p on its previous closing price of 108p.

News of the removal of Jim O'Mahony as chief executive of Golden Vale came too late to affect the stock's share price. There was some trading in the stock but it finished unchanged at 67p. Dealers said there may be an element of speculative dealing in the stock following news that Dermot Desmond has been buying into it.

Adare shares continued to suffer, following news earlier this week that Microsoft would stop buying computer manuals from Adare's subsidiary Mount Salus Press. Adare fell another 30p to finish at 440p.

Ryan Hotels, which held its a.g.m. yesterday was up 1/2p at 45p. Its chairman Mr Conor McCarthy said he had revised prospects for this year from good to "very good". Dealers said last night that they expect to stock to rise again next week.