SHARE prices moved ahead steadily in Dublin - boosted by another new high in London and a firmer opening session on Wall Street. At yesterday's close, the market was not far short of the all time ISEQ high of 2,700 notched up three weeks ago.

Trading was, however, uneven and was concentrated on three of the leading stocks, with CRH failing to trade even once. The best performer on the day was Bank of Ireland which rose 7p to a new high of 522p, while AIB was just 1/2p firmer on 393p. Other financials firmed, with Irish Permanent up 2p on 464p and Irish Life 1p stronger in 258p.

Among the industrials, Smurfit was the most active and closed up 3p on 171p after JS Corp firmed overnight on Wall Street. Smurfit is still, however finding it very difficult to break out of a narrow trading range around 170p and it will take news of some significance to change that.

Second liners were mixed, but Adare jumped 22 1/2p to 537 1/2p after lagging the market for the past couple of weeks. Greencore gained 5p to 360p, Waterford Wedgwood was not affected by reports of a bid for Rosenthal and was unchanged on 75p, while Unidare gained 5p to 175p.

Bond prices edged higher with some modest foreign buying interest boosting the five and 10 year stocks. Dealers were concerned over the recent weakness of the pound against sterling and a move below par against sterling would cause concern, despite the pound's strength at the top of the ERM band.