The Irish stock market side-stepped the anaemic performances on international market to push ahead steadily, although dealers said there was no great volume to yesterday's trading. The market seems reasonably well-supported at these levels, with the strength of corporate earnings growth meaning there is little interest in selling.

Among the financials, AIB gained 3p to 560p while Bank of Ireland was unchanged on 781p. Irish Life gained another 2p to 348p after its half-year results while Irish Permanent gained 3 1/2p to 613 1/2p ahead of the Sunday deadline for free shares to be claimed. Woodchester - expected to confirm the GE takeover with its interims next week - was 5p higher on 265p and that is expected to be in or around the buyout price.

Industrials were mixed, with Smurfit up another 1 1/2p to 230p after positive broker comments although CRH was 4p lower on 720p although the share did bounce back from a session low of 710p. Elsewhere, Avonmore/Waterford was unchanged on 280p - the newly-merged group reports its first set of results next Wednesday and there will be considerable interest in the accounting treatment of various items - notably goodwill. Greencore was 7p easier on 328p with the market gearing up for an active period for the group.

Hibernian was 20p higher on 420p while, among the resources stocks, Celtic dealt down sharply to 19p sterling (20p) from its previous level of 30p.