THE Irish market moved ahead again, following a dip on Thursday, partly boosted by another strong performance on Wall Street where fears of an interest rate rise at next week's of the Fed's policymaking committee have now receded. Most observers expect the Fed to hold rates at current levels and this should boost bond and equity markets.

Price changes among the leaders were relatively inconsequential but among second liners there were some strong performances. Ryanair jumped 14p to close on 354p, just 1p off its high since its flotation earlier this month. DCC was boosted by positive a.g.m. comments and rose 13p to a new high of 400p in late trading.

Among the leaders, AIB and Bank of Ireland were ahead marginally on 511p and 730p respectively, Smurfit was unchanged on 192p, while CRH eased back 2p to 690p. James Crean managed to retrieve some of the recent heavy losses and added 5p to 195p, while Greencore also regained some losses with a 4p gain to 329p.

Kerry was 3p lower on 630p - the price at which five directors and 70 senior managers have been offered 3.2 million share options exercisable in three years time. The shares are equivalent to around 2 per cent of Kerry equity.

Waterford Foods was 3p higher on 135p and Avonmore was 5p higher on 285p, but Golden Vale was 1p easier on 74p and may find it difficult to make much progress given the dismissive comments about mergers at this week's a.g.m.