SHARE prices on the Dublin market surged ahead, pushing the ISEQ index up by 1 per cent yesterday.
Strong demand from overseas and domestic investors boosted the market with dealers reporting trading volumes of between £20 million and £25 million.
Industrial stocks were the primary focus for investors.
CRH was the star performer, adding more than 12p to reach a new high of 612p. Dealers said trading in CRH was in fairly size able volumes, mainly from overseas buyers. The other leading industrial, Smurfit, gained 3p to 167p.
Among the second liners, Clondalkin forged strongly ahead, gaining 35p to close at 520p. The surge, appeared to be a delayed reaction to its purchase of the Dutch packaging company, Vander Windt, for £58 million last week, according to dealers.
Kerry also had a good day, rising to its all time high of 650p, up, 5p at close of business. The group yesterday announced that it had given Kerry Co-op an option to buy its agri business division.
The food sector moved in line with the market, with most stocks trading marginally higher. Fyffes added a penny to 107p. Greencore, which will announce its interim results today, gained 8p, moving to 310p.
In the financial sector, the two banks notched up gains. AIB ended the day 8p higher at 348p while Bank of Ireland traded more than 114p up at 446p. Irish Life was unchanged at 253p. Yesterday, the group disclosed that it had reduced its holding in the Smurfit group from 7.01 per cent to 6.98 per cent. Irish Permanent was also unchanged, trading at 382p while Woodchester put on 2p to 202p.
Other shares on the move were" Lyons which traded up 10p to 325p and Fitswilton which gained 2p.
United Drug announced a 17 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £2.7 million in the six months to the end of March.
In other corporate news Silvermines told its shareholders yesterday it was keen to purchase a manufacturer of fire detection, systems to complement its other businesses and IFG announced that it had taken an option to acquire between 33 per cent and 1001 per cent of Financial Tradeline, a new company which organises trade finance for businesses.
