BULA continued to be the punters' favourite and the shares were driven ahead to a new high in a flood of bidding. Fyffes was another stock to rise sharply on hopes for its new Internet fresh produce trading business, but otherwise it was a mixed performance with profit-taking dragging some of the leaders lower.

Rumour is the driving force behind the latest flurry in Bula shares, with British media reports of oil and gas finds in Libya bringing in more and more punter interest. Bula, which was trading around 1 1/2 cents three months ago, jumped 1 1/2 cents yesterday to 11 cents and is likely to move higher with bids for stock coming in above that closing level.

The view in the market is that very little is built into the Fyffes price to reflect the prospects for its worldoffruit.com business and that has been the main reason for the 57 per cent rise in the shares since midDecember. Yesterday, the shares jumped another 33 cents to €2.58 following the latest developments at the new Internet business.

Otherwise it was mixed stuff, with profit-taking from the recent high dragging CRH back 60 cents to €21.20, although Smurfit held firm at its overnight €3.20. Eircom hit an early high of €4.19 before closing two cents lower on €4.13.

Elsewhere, Ryanair - which has drifted in the past week - regained 70 cents to €11.70 while Heiton jumped another 20 cents to €3.70 after its recent good results.

There was little activity in the financials, with AIB unchanged on €11.15, Bank of Ireland seven cents higher on €7.67 and F irst Active five cents weaker on €2.15. Baltimore was the only highlight of Nasdaq trading, with the share trading over $3 on $83 as the Irish market closed.