SHARES continued their relentless upward movement yesterday. The ISEQ index notched up yet another record high. Most interest was cent red on the second-liners which are considered good value currently. This sentiment, dealers said, should provide the market with continued nourishment.

Smurfit should be helped by news of the placement of the 54 million Tiger shares at 147p. The shares ended yesterday unchanged at 151p, but were well bid.

Although CRH's results were at the upper end of brokers' predictions, they failed to impress the market which pondered where future growth would come from.

Brokers normally upgrade their forecasts for CRH after its results. Not so this time. Dealers said the predictions for this year will probably remain around the same. The shares fell by 12p to 530p.

While the domestic market remains favourable and its geographic spread in the US market will help it there, the omens are not that good elsewhere.

There is, for example, a slowdown in growth in mainland Europe, particularly in Germany, and the British market remains difficult. Dealers said profit growth this year could be between 13 per cent and 14 per cent, well down on the 38 per cent growth announced yesterday.

Kerry Group, which did not surprise the market with its results, fell 5p to 525p. However, with positive sentiment toward food shares continuing, dealers expect positive interest in Kerry. Reflecting this sentiment, Avonmore improved by 5p to 145p, Golden Vale increased 2 1/2p to 77 1/2p and Greencore went up by 8p to 298p.

Interest in the main bank shares was pretty flat, said one dealer.

AIB put on 1p to 331p in the number of deals. Bank of was unchanged at 442p.

Dealings in Adare were positive and the shares put on 25p to 455p. Adare has been expanding fast through acquisitions.

Green continued its upward move with an almost 2p rise to 209p following its good results last week and positive outlook. IWP was another feature and it gained 11p to 448p. Woodchester, ahead of its results, gained 6p to 193p.