With Wall Street initially soaring by more than 100 points after the publication of the non-farm payroll figures, the Irish market powered to another new high with the financial shares once again leading the charge. With so much money in the market, there seems no reason to expect any immediate end to the bull market. It will probably take a correction in New York to cause that and, with the interest rate environment there continuing to be benign, no such correction seems likely.

Bank of Ireland and Irish Per- manent were the stars of yesterday's trading. Bank of Ireland jumped 23p to a new high of 903p while Irish Permanent added 30p to 700p, also a new high. Irish Permanent and Irish Life are seen as two of the front-runners in the bidding for New Ireland, for which bids have to be lodged by next Tuesday.

Irish Life was marginally firmer with a 2p gain to 366p while elsewhere in the financials, AIB was 5p higher on 626p and Anglo Irish gained 2p to a new high of 112p.

Price changes among the industrial shares were less dramatic, but Smurfit benefited from the strength of the US sector and dealt up 6p to 238p while CRH gained 4p to 802p. IAWS was 2p higher on 232p - a price movement that suggests the market does not expect any share issue to fund the Cuisine de France acquisition.

Likewise, Kerry gained 3p to 825p suggesting that any substantial share issue to fund an acquisition is unlikely.