The extraordinary volatility of Bank of Ireland was once again the dominant feature of the Irish stock market which reached another new high, due almost entirely to the 75p rise in the bank's shares. Over the past couple of weeks, the bank has fallen over 200p from its original £15.63p high on some heavy profit-taking, only to recover dramatically on a scale that has left Dublin dealers astonished.

Since last Tuesday morning, its shares have risen from £14.05 to £15.75 - a rise of over 11 per cent. This is mainly due to the almost total absence of offers of stock to meet the heavy demand from overseas investors, demand that many in the market believe has driven the shares up to levels that cannot be justified unless Bank of Ireland produces results next month that are well in excess of current earnings forecasts of 68-70p.

AIB also saw some chunky trading and dealt up to a new intra-day high of £10.14, before closing up 9 1/2p on the day on £10.01. Anglo Irish

Bank was 8p higher on 182p although Irish Life and Irish Permanent were both 5p easier on 710p and 955p respectively. That trading came against the background of a much weaker British banking sector after the Financial Times questioned the valuations put on British banks and Lloyds/TSB in particular. More bid speculation involving Commercial Union saw Hibernian jump another 20p to 820p.

Among the industrials, JS Corp first-quarter earnings came in below par, with an out-turn of 10 cents per share against market estimates of around 12 cents. The market, however, was content with the trading statement from the Smurfit associate, which was down only marginally on Nasdaq at $18 3/4. Smurfit shares closed 5p higher on 235p, where they were enjoying support at the close.

CRH, however, continued to weaken in thin trading and closed down 13p on £10.25, while Fyffes continued to weaken dramatically after its recent run to over 190p, losing 9p to 166p. Adare continued to rise, boosted by the recent Fidelity buying, and closed up 20p to £10.20, while DCC was 5p higher on 632p.

Greencore continued to benefit from the positive reaction to the Pauls acquisition and dealt up 5p to 453p, while Kerry reached a new intra-day high of £10.l5 before closing 5p higher on the day on £10.35. Independent was 3p easier on 432p, Marlborough was up 10p to another new high at 380p while Waterford Wedgwood was unchanged, but bid at 120p. The main feature on the gilt market was the successful auction of the 2015 long-dated stock where the £100 million on offer from the NTMA was covered almost three times. The highest price in the auction fetched a yield of 5.32 per cent while the lowest price yielded 5.33 per cent.

Apart from the auction, trading volumes were low and at the close, the 2001 gilt was yielding 4.73 per cent and the 2008 stock 5.07 per cent.