THE market did not appear to be influenced by the prospect that retail interest rates might have to rise. And that prospect did not recede yesterday as the one month inter-bank interest rate remained above 5.5 per cent.

The bank shares, which have been buoyant over the past two weeks, continued in a perky mood, but prices either moved sideways or were marginally up.

A positive hue flowed from the good results from Barclays which pushed interim profits up by 15 per cent to £1.3 billion sterling and raised the dividend by 21 per cent.

But it was the share buy out which provided the most interest.

The buy out, the third in 12 months, represented 3.5 per cent of its own equity and cost £470 million. This followed the £180 million buy out in August 1995 and the £306 million buy outlast February.

While there was a firm tone to the Irish banks, they did not progress by much. AIB just managed a 1p rise to 347p while Bank of Ireland, in a number of deals, first went ahead but ended the day unchanged at 445p. Anglo Irish went against the trend with a 0.5p fall to 61.5p.

Crean was strong. The shares first rose by 2p to 192p and then went ahead a further 3p to 195p.

Irish Life showed some initial virility by going up by 1p to 240p. Then, however, it sagged 1p to 239p. Irish Permanent was better it increased by 3p to 388p.

Silvermines was not influenced by yesterday's announcement of two new orders from the Middle East. The shares merely moved sideways to 78p. The two orders are valued at £6.5 million.

Elequip, Silvermines' subsidiary, is to provide power supply management and distribution for the Anglo Qatari power project.

Bula Resources went ahead from 2.5p to 2.65p. The company yesterday announced that the drilling problems in connection with its 705 well in western Siberia have been overcome. This well will now commence a testing programme.