THE Irish market continued to surge ahead, boosted by the strong opening on Wall Street and a mildly firmer tone in London. Both of these overseas markets are closed on Monday for a long week-end, so there is every likelihood that the Irish market will take a breather at the start of the week.

Financial shares remain the flavour of the month and AIB - buoyed by its upgrading by Moody's - went 3p higher to a new high of 506p. Bank of Ireland, which fell sharply on Thursday, regained some ground and closed 3p higher on 747.

Industrials were also generally firmer and Smurfit was 2p higher on 184p and drawing bids at that level, following the reports in this newspaper that JS Corp may carry out a restructuring that could involve selling off up to $1.4 billion (£925 million) worth of assets. CRH, however, was marginally lower and closed down 4p on 656p in thin trading.

Confirmation that the WTO has ruled against the EU banana regime had no impact on Fyffe with the share unchanged on 94p. This ruling has already been priced into Fyffes shares and no further weakness is expected.

Green jumped 20p to 345p while Readymix regained some lost ground and closed up 6p on 151p.

Aminex disclosed that it has placed 250,000 shares with private American investors at 65p - a 5p discount on the market price.

Avonmore was 1p firmer on 245p while putative merger partner Waterford Foods gained 3p to 98p.