WEAKER international trading led to a further decline on the market yesterday and by the close, the ISEQ was almost 2.5 per cent below its all time high of just over a week ago. Interest in trading is minimal and dealers see little in the week ahead to shake the Irish market out of its current bout of lethargy.

CRH continued to weaken although dealers noted that the recent run up by the shares to an all time high of 652p and the subsequent weakening to yesterday's close of 613p had been on very small volumes. Still, a six per cent fall in CRH shares in the space of a couple of weeks is a substantial setback, even though much of the bearishness is sector wide and exacerbated by the recent shocks at Wickes and Costain.

CRH was 7p lower on the day at 613p but all of the leaders were lower, with AIB down 2p on 326p, Bank of Ireland 1/2p on 427p while Smurfit lost 2 1/2p to 168p. In Smurfit's case, most observers will be looking ahead to the second quarter reporting season for US packaging companies. These results from the sector are expected to be a tale of woe, but much of the expected bad news is probably priced into the Smurfit share.

Elsewhere, Independent began trading ex rights and closed on 283p, 13p above the issue price of the new shares. The nil paid rights were trading at the close on 10p.

Crean was unchanged on 260p despite the a.g.m. confirmation that the loss of the Mars agency will cost the company £1.17 million.

IAWS, the company which beat Crean to the Mars business was unchanged on 165p - market sources were treating with some considerable caution the speculation that IAWS and Allegro may be potential marriage partners. The outright denial by Allegro of any proposed deal was being treated at face value, even though the market would probably welcomed a further expansion into distribution by IAWS.