FRENZIED bidding drove Irish bonds ahead strongly on the Dublin markets, with the phenomenally strong Exchequer returns merely adding to the demand for stock from overseas investors.
The demand for bonds fed through to the equity markets where yield sensitive financial stocks rose sharply and the market reached a new high.
On the equity market, most of the financials were well ahead on the day, with the best performance probably coming from Bank of Ireland whose shares rose; 10p to a hew high of 500p. AIR was 4p stronger on 373p, Irish Life jumped 6 1/2p to 259 1/2p, while Woodchester - partly on speculation over the Credit Lyonnais stake - was 5p higher on 205p.
Irish Permanent - for no apparent reason - went against the trend and eased 3p to 452p.
Industrials were generally firmer although one of the leaders, Smurfit, is finding it difficult to make progress and was unchanged on 169p. CRH gained 8 1/2p to 643 1/2p while Greencore was unchanged on 355p. Morgan Grenfell has emerged as a recent heavy seller of Greencore with its stake falling from 5.7 per cent to 4.1 per cent indicating that Morgan Grenfell sold three million shares.
Elsewhere, Kerry hit a new high of 678p, a rise of 3p while IAWS - heavily bid of late - gained 8 to a new high of 171p.
Tullow did not trade in Dublin but was sharply higher in heavy London trading where the share rose 2 3/4p to 99 1/2p sterling on turnover of 7.3 million shares.
