Strong demand from overseas investors and the new high in Lon- don produced another sparkling performance by the Irish market, which closed up 1.2 per cent to yet another new high. Wall Street was down slightly as the market closed and the direction of the market next week will be largely dictated by the final session in New York.

As usual, the leaders dominated the turnover and AIB surged ahead 15p to a new 770p high while Bank of Ireland was 17p higher on £11.32. Leading industrials were also stronger and CRH - boosted by recent recommendations from Salomon and Goldman Sachs - was 17p stronger on 870p while Smurfit moved 2p higher to 202p.

Kerry's mega-acquisition of Dalgety's food ingredients business got a belated thumbs-up from the market and the Kerry share gained 20p to close on a new 810p high. Elsewhere Fyffes was 3p higher on 135p, Irish Life gained 12p to 470p while Irish Permanent was 5p higher on 865p.

Recent weakness in the shares on NASDAQ - they are down $3 in the past couple weeks to $19 - saw Iona shares fall almost £1 to £14.40. Another NASDAQ stock, Ryanair, was 10p higher on 350p.

Gilts held firm in line with German bunds, after dipping following Fed chairman Alan Greenspans's cautious comments about the Asian crisis.