THE Irish market rose slightly yesterday as traders moved to balance their books ahead of the quarter end.

A rise in the London market also boosted sentiment as dealers marked up stock on heavier than normal volumes overseas.

CRH jumped 17p to 630p as the market decided it was not as exposed as had been feared to a slowdown in the building sector in Britain. Trade in building firms Wickes and Costain was suspended this week.

Banks saw good two way trade on the back of firmer bond markets and "window dressing" ahead of the quarter's end, traders said. AIB ended up 2p at 328p while Bank of Ireland fell 1/4p to 426 3/4p and Irish Permanent remained at 395p.

The third rights issue of the week, this time from Mackie, failed to stir the stock and it didn't trade.

Smurfit rebounded slightly from its recent drift to close a penny firmer at 169p.

Independent continued to benefit from the rights issue it announced earlier this week. It rose 7p to 290p.

Greencore put on 4p to close at 329p while Fitzwilton added 2p to 160p.

Bond markets also moved higher, helped by a positive mood on US and European markets. The 10 year benchmark rose to 102.60p to yield 7.48 per cent from 7.56 per cent. The 6.5 per cent five year rose to 98.4op to yield 6.76 per cent from 6.85 per cent.