THE Dublin market was marginally down yesterday, but CRH continued to forge ahead, hitting another all time high. The building materials group's share price rose by 18p at one stage, reaching 655p before falling back to 650p. Dealers estimated that around 450,000 CRH shares traded in Dublin and a similar amount in London.

Dealers said that profit up grades by Warburg and Merrill Lynch, on the back of presentations by analysts in Holland yesterday, were helping to spark further interest in the stock.

However, they said that the up grades were in line with the profits forecasts made previously by Dublin analysts. These are pre-tax profits of £188 million. Much of the buying was by British and foreign interests.

Golden Vale gained 3p on the day yesterday, despite the removal of chief executive Jim O'Mahony, to close at 70p. There has been steady interest in the share recently.

Trade was active in Kerry group and the stock gained 3p on the day to finish at 660p.

Waterford Wedgwood, another good performer in recent weeks, gained 1p at one stage but finished unchanged at 84p.

In the financials Bank of Ireland fell 5p, while AIB slipped back 2p to finish at 335p. Irish Permanent performed well, gaining 2p to close at 394p.

Smurfit also saw its share price rise by 2p to 170p and Readymix gained 2p, ending the day at 125p.

Adare, whose share price has taken a bit of a hammering this week did not trade.