reached a record high yesterday, closing at 1,233.87 on gains made by the major players. The previous high for the index was 1221.36.

Since the start of this year the index has gained about 34 percent in value representing what BSX chief executive officer William Woods says is a combination of more interest in the market by foreign and local investors.

"It's a combination of foreign investor interest, particluarly in bank stocks which were trading below book value, and local investor interest,'' he said.

"People figure that things have turned around.'' Lines Overseas Management Ltd. has been doing a lot of that buying on behalf of foreign investors. Company managing director Scott Lines said foreign investors were recognising that some of the biggest capitalised players in the markets were "riduculously'' underpriced in relation to their price to earnings ratio, their price to book value and their yields.

He said the largest capitalised players still remain attractive as investments.

"The market in these terms would be generally considered cheap,'' he said.

The Bank of Bermuda Ltd., The Bank of N.T. Butterfield and Son Ltd., BELCO Holdings Ltd., Argus Insurance Ltd., and Bermuda Telephone Co. Ltd. represent 90 percent of the market capitalisation on the BSX.