The love affair between Irish fund managers and CRH continues. In the latest annual Finance Magazine the fund manager once again awarded CRH the top slot for the most admired and best publicly quoted Irish company.

The international building materials firm ranks ahead of all others in terms of its strategic positioning, acquisition capability, investor relations, corporate governance, capital structure, and accounting information in the 1998 survey.

Other favourites include Elan, AIB and Kerry while among the second liners, the fund managers also like Jurys, Esat, Ryanair, Galen, Marlborough, Iona and Viridian.

The survey, which was carried out before CBT's troubles were revealed in the huge crash in its share price, shows the fund managers were also highly impressed with the company viewing it as the second best plc after CRH.

A new poll might be expected to show a slightly different view.

Meanwhile, Finance also established that Davy Stockbrokers holds on to its spot as the dominant player in Irish stockbroking while NCB has managed to move ahead of Goodbodys as the second force. The fund managers rated Davy as offering the best dealing service and Irish equity research. NCB was delighted with its performance, particularly winning the overall first place for research on leading industrial slots.