TRADING volumes may have been down sharply but the Irish market pushed strongly ahead yesterday, breaking through 3300 on the ISEQ to close on a new all time high.
Big rises by Bank of Ireland, CRH, Greencore, Kerry and the formal first trading in Ryanair were the highlights of the day.
Bank of Ireland has slipped of late, but bounced back yesterday to close up 8p on 718p, while AIB was 3p firmer on 506p. CRH was the focus of some chunky trading in London and bucked the generally downward trend in its sector with a 13p gain to 672p.
Smurfit reached its best level for some time with a 4p gain to 190p as JS Corp firmed above $18 on the New York market.
Second liners had a good day.
Barlo went up 1 1/2p to 54p with the market showing its approval of chief executive Tony Mull ins buying a million shares. James Crean was 3p higher on 240p as further asset sales are awaited after the sale of its UBH stake to Guinness for almost £13 million.
Greencore gained 7p to 357p in further positive reaction to its half year results, while Kerry gained 15p to 655p.
On its first day of formal trading, Ryanair was 5p higher on 337p. Many in the market believe that further growth in the share price is hardly justified given the sort of ratings Ryanair is currently trading on.
Kingspan was up 15p on a new high of 790p. The suspension of Dunloe House came early on in the day and the backing in of Phil Monahan and Noel Smyth's property interests will probably be welcomed by the market even though a rights issue by the merged company seems a distinct possibility.
