WITH Wall Street soaring for the third successive day, the Irish market surged ahead to yet another new high, with the ISEQ closing up almost another 1.5 per cent on 2912.67. The demand for shares was broad based, but there was huge demand for the main banking shares, while CRH and Smurfit also traded heavily.
And for the first time since the announcement of the Dauphin acquisition, Bank of Ireland shares outperformed and narrowed the gap between the two market leaders to just £25 million.
Bank of Ireland dealt up a full 25p to close on a record 600p in a late deal, while AIB was 5p higher on 433p. Irish Permanent also moved to another new high, with a 10p jump to 540p although Irish Life drifted lower in late trading closing down 1p on 270p.
CRH closed up 7p on 657p on continued demand from British investors, while Smurfit dealt in size but failed to make much progress, closing up just Pip on 170p. Second liners in demand included Avonmore, which was up 5p on 190p, and Clondalkin, which was 10p higher on 525p.
Elsewhere, an enthusiastic response to the investment in French fertilisers pushed IAWS to a new high of 190p, while Independent was 5p stronger on 340p.
Woodchester gained 3p to 235p.
Among the exploration stocks, a flurry of buying drove Arcon up 3 1/2p to 43p, while there was also a flurry of trading in Ovoca which dealt up 2p to 14p.
