Dublin moved ahead yesterday despite a fall of €1.09 to €61.30 in the price of Elan, the Athlone-based drugs company which accounts for almost 20 per cent of the market. The ISEQ index of Irish shares closed at 5,884 up 22 points and near its recent record highs.

Eircom continued to drift in the absence of any fresh news about the talks with Vodafone and e-Island about the splitting up of the company. The shares closed at €3.32 in Dublin, up three cents. In London they closed at the equivalent of €3.40, but only a small number of shares changed hands. Most of the leading stocks moved ahead. AIB was up nine cents at €12.09 but Bank of Ireland fell 15 cents to €8.93. Anglo Irish Bank, the other quoted bank share, was up seven cents on €2.80 cents. Financial stock were boosted by data released by the Central Bank on Tuesday showing that private sector credit growth was falling. This suggested fears that the economy was about to overheat are were a little overdone.

CRH continued its recent rally, up from €17.88 to €18.47. The reasons for the rise remained as shrouded in mystery as the cause of its recent falls. Smurfit was up five cents at €2.15. The markets will look to overseas for direction in the absence of any Irish corporate news this side of the Budget. Irish fund managers appear reluctant to sell stock in anticipation of a year-end rally, driven in all likelihood by overseas markets. ITG group, which announced that it was taking a 30 per cent stake in virtual mobile operator Cellular 3 for €10 million, was down seven cents on the day at €8.88.