Shares in Baltimore Technologies, the Irish-founded e-commerce security company, continued to rise sharply yesterday following news of a $30 million (€29.4 million) contract. The share price on the London Stock Exchange, which climbed 12 per cent on Monday, rose by a further 8.8 per cent to close at 995p sterling.

Earlier this week, Baltimore said it had beaten off key competitors in the United States to secure a deal to supply security software for Internet transactions to an international banking consortium, Identrus.

The consortium includes such financial houses as ABN AMRO, Bank of America, Barclay's Bank, Chase Manhattan, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Hypo Vereinsbank.