The market continued its foray into record territory yesterday, adding 10.94 points in good two-way trade. Dealers said shares were attracting overseas interest following equity-friendly tax changes announced in Wednesday's budget, while a good performance overseas also lent support. The FTSE 100 ended 61 points higher while the Dow shrugged off robust jobs data to move higher in early trade.

"The Irish market has been re-rated following the Budget. We are seeing good overseas interest and some domestic interest too," one equity dealer said.

But traders said the market was likely to move sideways next week as it consolidated following its strong post-Budget performance. Trade was again dominated by the leading stocks with CRH catching up on yesterday's strong performance by the banks to gain 15p to 830p.

Although dealers reported some selling of stock bought prior to the Budget, there was good bid interest in the banks, both of which ended broadly unchanged. Bank of Ireland closed at 993p, unchanged on the day, while AIB gave up just 5p to close at 665p. Irish Permanent was another stock to play catch-up, adding 20p to 720p.

Greencore, which reported a 9 per cent drop in annual pre-tax profits to £49.7 million on Thursday, closed unchanged at 309p.

Rapid Technology, which had its first day of trading on the Developing Companies' Market (DCM), added 8p to 115p in good volume, dealers said.