all-time high on Thursday.

The Royal Gazette/Bermuda Stock Exchange Index closed down 5.24 points at 1972.53 on Friday, after setting a record high on Thursday when it closed at 1,977.77. For the week, the index was up 51.782 points.

The gains in the index have been driven almost entirely by the banking sector.

The Bank of Bermuda matched its record high of $40 on volume of 14,422 on continued speculation that it will get a secondary listing on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

The Bank of Butterfield -- also expected to seek a secondary listing in the US -- also reached its high for the year of $20 on Thursday before dropping off 25 cents to close at $19.75 on Friday. But the bank's share still gained 5.33 percent in value for the week on volume of 20,203 shares.

Bermuda Commercial Bank had a spectacular week jumping $1.95 or 34.45 percent to $7.45 on volume of 20,000 shares.

Trading on the rest of the market was thin, with Belco Holdings gaining $1.50 or 7.5 percent to close at $21.50 on volume of just 175 shares and Kentucky Fried Chicken trading unchanged at $5 on volume of 10,576 shares.

A total of 65,376 shares worth $1,168,505 were traded.

The BSX Insurance Index, which tracks the movement of Bermuda-based insurance companies, gained 18.41 points or 2.21 percent on Friday.