The two-tier market in Dublin operated in full force yesterday, as stocks with Internet businesses went through the roof, while so-called "old economy" shares remained dead and buried. At this stage, there is no sign of an end to the current euphoria over Net stocks and traditional financial and industrial shares seem destined to remain in the doldrums.

The claim by Ryanair that its Ryanair.com subsidiary is now the second-most visited website in the Republic (after The Irish Times's ireland.com portal) drove Ryanair to unprecedented levels, with the shares up another 50 cents to €8.25 in Dublin and up $5 in midday Nasdaq trading to $43. At this level, Ryanair shares are trading at an extraordinary 47 times historic earnings, but normal earnings multiples do not seem to apply in the brave new world of dot com investment.

Plans to float worldoffruit.com by end-year drove the Fyffes share back up 20 cents to €3.55, while DCC - whose Sercom offshoot is a potential beneficiary of the Internet revolution - was up 75 cents on €13, compared to little more than €7 at the start of the year.

Eircom was driven ahead 24 cents to €4.74 on speculation that France Telecom's plans to float its Wanadoo Internet service provider (ISP) might trigger similar moves by other telecoms groups. Eircom operates the Indigo and Eircom Net ISPs in the Republic. Irish Internet stocks on Nasdaq were also bid ahead strongly, with both Smartforce and Trintech well up in midday trading, although Baltimore's charge ran out of steam.

Of the traditional shares, CRH benefited from post-results presentations in Dublin and London and was up 27 cents on €18.50, AIB lost much of Wednesday's gain and was down 16 3/4 cents on €8.83, while Bank of Ireland closed down 10 cents on €6.