The resurgence of the major financial shares shows no signs of slowing down. Despite the big gains of the past couple of weeks, it is worth noting that there has so far been no halt for profit-taking. Evidently, investors believe the banks are going to trade higher, with the ISEQ Financial Index still almost 5 per cent short of its November 1999 high.

In contrast, the main ISEQ index is within 1 per cent of its April high. Bar any sudden slump in the market, the index should notch up a new high next week, with the strength of the banks and index heavyweight Elan more than balancing the weaker performance by industrials. Volumes in the banks were not as large yesterday, but over three million Bank of Ireland shares traded as the stock rose 42 cents to €9.00, while AIB was 32 cents higher on €11.90. Irish Life was five cents higher on €11.05 after buying in another 733,000 shares at €11.00. Anglo Irish bounded ahead nine cents to €2.65.

The main corporate news was the suspension of Golden Vale ahead of an acquisition big enough to constitute a reverse takeover. That means the deal will be bigger than GV's own market capitalisation of €167 million. Another 8.5 million Dunloe shares traded as the stock added six cents to 48 cents, with speculation that the big Wednesday buyer, apartment developer Mr Liam Carroll, was back in the market topping up his stake.

IWP was unchanged on €1.65 as chief executive Mr Joe Moran bought another 350,000 shares at €1.60 to take his stake to 6.5 million shares or 8.2 per cent. Eircom was unchanged on €2.54.