After the second-quarter stutter when share prices took a minor battering - illustrated this week by the marginally negative second-quarter return by Irish pension funds - the first week and a half of July has seen the Irish market in much better shape.

Financial shares continued their upward march while selected industrials also made good gains.

The demand for shares was indicated clearly by the excellent price that Ryanair got for the secondary offering of stock that accompanied its London listing. Two weeks ago, when Ryanair director, Mr James Osborne sold 200,000 shares at around 500p, a placing price of 550p would have seemed inconceivable.

But with Ryanair shares pushing over $40 on Nasdaq, Ryanair was able to get a top-of-the-range price for the nine million new shares it was placing, not to mention the 12 million-odd shares being sold off by the Ryan family, chairman Mr David Bonderman and chief executive Mr Michael O'Leary.

After the placing and with its new London listing, Ryanair has got a much more even spread of shareholders, with 40 per cent in the US, 40 per cent in Ireland and now 20 per cent in Britain and Europe. The placing was five times oversubscribed, so it was no surprise to see the shares trade up to a 585p all-time high yesterday.

Given the time of the year, other corporate news was thin on the ground. But Heiton's results were well-received while the market also welcomed Golden Vale's £19.5 million acquisition of Rye Valley Foods, a move that further diversifies Golden Vale from basic milk processing into added-value prepared foods.

By this time next year, the Telecom Eireann public offering is likely to be completed, with Telecom shares trading actively in Dublin, London, probably New York and possibly a European stock market to reflect Telecom's shareholding profile.

Already, the broking and corporate finance communities are making their pitches for the work that will go with Ireland's biggest flotation and the biggest public offering of shares when the Government offers at least half its then 51 per cent in Telecom to the public. Depending on how markets perform in the interim, those shares will be worth at least £700 million and up to £1 billion.

Both the Government and Telecom are keeping coy about plans for the flotation, but the expectation is that the sale of Government shares will be heavily biased towards the smaller investor, with institutional investors consequently heavily underweight in a stock that will make up between 6 per cent and 7 per cent of the ISEQ Index. That alone should ensure that trading after the flotation will be in one direction - sharply upward.

The broking and corporate finance community face a busy few weeks as they prepare final submissions for the immensely lucrative work that the flotation will bring. ABN Amro and NCB have already produced detailed reports on Telecom Eireann and Davy has begun coverage of the company it its weekly book. That sort of research effort is not being carried out without at least one eye on the jobs on offer.