THE heavy profit taking on Wall Street on Tuesday took the steam out of the Irish market, in line with the sharply weaker tone on international markets. And were it not for a big jump by rarely traded Elan which makes up almost nine per cent of the index, the ISEQ, would undoubtedly have closed lower on the day rather than the 7.53 point rise.

Elan dealt up almost 75p to close on £18.54 1/2 but it is still essentially a stock for Wall Street investors. Among the more conventional leaders, banking stocks were moderately weaker with AIB down 2 1/2p on 388p although Bank of Ireland was 1p firmer in 518p. Irish Permanent closed unchanged but well hid on its all time high of 500p while Irish Life was up 2p on 279p.

Industrials were mixed with CRH 4p lower on 591p as the sector weakened on the London market. Smurfit added 1p to 167p, European Leisure dealt for the first time in two weeks and closed up 24p on 182p while Greencore was 1p easier ahead of today's full year results. Mackie closed down 19p on 131p despite a recent big contract announcement.

Gilts were weaker especially around the ten year area as the markets waited for today's bank lending figures from the Central Bank. The EBR figures on Tuesday were generally positive for the market but there will be keen interest in today's figures for lending growth. Forecasts for credit growth are in the 13 to 14 per cent range - and anything higher than 14 per cent will probably be seen as a negative.