Earnings benefits from the current surge in house-building and infrastructural projects are not merely trickling down but flooding into all companies associated with the golden business of bricks and mortar, suppliers of concrete, timber merchants, decorators and even DIY stores enjoying boom trading conditions.

The Readymix company, which produces ready-mixed concrete, is working hard to match supply with demand and in the process notching up significant growth in earnings and profits. The publicly-quoted company this week produced another excellent set of trading results, showing that last year pre-tax profits jumped 45 per cent to £12.6 million on turnover up 41 per cent to £112 million.

Despite warnings from the company - and the Central Bank - that the construction bubble must, if not burst, at least deflate, the market responded enthusiastically to the results, hoisting the shares 40p to a new high of 340p. Shareholders' support is cemented by higher total dividends of 5.31p per share.