As London surged to a new closing high on the back of strong corporate results and cash handouts to shareholders as well as the weakness of sterling against the dollar, the Irish market moved ahead steadily. The main reason for the rise in the index was strong gains by index heavyweights AIB and Elan.

AIB has weakened since its results as takeover talk dissipated and some investors took profit from the recent surge in the share. But the shares were in good demand yesterday and dealt up 20 cents to €15.55 (£12.25). Bank of Ireland, however, drifted and was down 15 cents to €19.35 (£15.24). Irish Permanent was also in good demand and was up 25 cents on €14.60 (£11.50) although merger partner Irish Life was unchanged on €9.05 (£7.13).

Industrials were mixed, with CRH easing back three cents to €16.20 (£12.76) ahead of results next week. Unidare was 25 cents higher on €2.35 (£1.85) as it emerged that the 13.5 per cent stake snapped up on Tuesday by Mr Pierce Casey and Mr Dermot Desmond came from a single seller, AIB Investment Managers. Athlone Extrusions did not trade from its overnight €0.79 (62p) as Irish Life disclosed that it sold 347,000 shares last week to take its stake to 3.2 million shares or 6.2 per cent.

Elsewhere, Avonmore Waterford was eight cents higher on €2.20 (£1.73), Clondalkin was 20 cents higher on €6.10 (£4.80) while DCC saw some good demand and was 25 cents stronger on €7.45 (£5.87). Green was 20 cents higher on €5.40 (£4.25) ahead of results while IWP traded busily but was unchanged on €2.10 (£1.65) as the market mulled over the prospect of a management buyout or merger with a competitor. Jurys jumped 35 cents to €7 (£5.51) while Smurfit continued to improve and was three cents higher on €1.85 (£1.46).