THE surge on international bond and equity markets sent the Irish markets forging ahead, and by the close the ISEQ Overall Index was just a shade off its all-time high while gilt prices were sharply higher.
On the equity market, the focus of attention was on financials which benefited from the strength of the bond markets and the strength of bank stocks in New York after good results.
Bank of Ireland was the star performer, gaining 6 1/2p to 462p, but most of the other financials benefited from the strength of the market, with AIB up 4p to 357p and Irish Life up 2p to 252p while Irish Permanent was also 2p firmer on 403p.
Industrials were less active and Smurfit was only 7/8p weaker on 162 1/8p despite a 1.5 per cent fall overnight by the US packaging sector. JS Corp was not affected by this sect oral weakness and was unchanged yesterday on $10 3/4 - although this probably reflects more the lack of liquidity in the shares (over 80 per cent are held by Smurfit and Morgan Stanley) than any inherent resilience by JS Corp.
CRH was unchanged on 458p while Elan jumped $3 in New York to $52 after upgradings by brokers.
The gilt market was sharply higher in line with international markets, as investors focused on short and medium-dated stocks. Five-year gilts firmed 40p to close on a yield of 6.42 per cent while 10-year gilts closed up 55p on a yield of 7. 16 per cent.
Once again, there was heavy. trading in medium gilt and interest-rate futures on IFOX, with 380 gilt contracts and 210 DIBOR futures trading with an underlying value of £124 million.
