SHARE prices edged higher on the Dublin market, but the only price rises of any significance were among the bigger second-line stocks with both Greencore and Irish Permanent moving to new highs.

Irish Permanent jumped 15p in late trading to reach a new high of 500p - and there seems little sign of any slackening off in demand, with institutions still heavily underweight in the stock and with few sellers around.

Despite rising from 180p at flotation to 500p, Irish Permanent still has more than 110,000 share-holders - a shareholding depth that leaves virtually every institutional investor heavily short of stock.

Greencore gained 4 3/4p to close on a new high of 363p ahead of full-year results tomorrow. Profits in the order of £54 million and earnings per share of around 24p have been pencilled in by analysts. Anything significantly higher than those forecasts will probably see even more bid interest in Green core shares.

Among the leaders, there was little action but CRH drifted off 5p to 595p while Smurfit was unchanged on 166p. Bank of Ireland was unchanged on 517p while AIB was off 1/2p on 390 1/2p.

Second-liners to improve included Fyffes, up 2p to 108p, IWP, up 9p to 259p, while Independent gained 6 1/2p to 310p. Despite more selling by M&G - another 139,000 shares were sold last week - Heiton was 1p higher on 98p.

Gilts were mixed, with the short end of the market marginally weaker, while long-dated stock rose by 65p. The short end of the market should be given a boost, however, by the exceptionally good November exchequer borrowing figures where the £153 million surplus was double most forecasts.