THE Irish market pushed ahead marginally but trading was relatively thin and dealers said that turn over was well down on the £29 million traded on Wednesday.

The main feature was profit taking in CRH and some renewed support for Smurfit as some US brokers upgraded their 1997 forecasts for the paper and packaging sector.

CRH fell 6p to 642p as profit taking hit the sector, but the share was well supported at that level. Smurfit closed up 5p on 175p but dealers do not see the share making much further progress given the uncertainty over short term prospects. Financials were little changed with Bank of Ireland up on 435p, AIB unchanged on 334p and Irish Life up 2p to 253p.

Second liners were mixed, Anglo Irish was 1p firmer on 62p on a Goodbody recommendation, Golden Vale reached a high of 75p before closing unchanged on 73p the heavy overseas buying petered out for the present while Greencore gained 2p to 330p.

IWP was 10p higher on 510p after giving presentations to overseas investors while among the explorers Kenmare gained 11/2p to 32p after bullish comments with the half year results while Ovoca also gained 11/2p to 14p.

The gilt market regained early losses after the publication of May inflation figures which are seen as a distinct positive for the market. Gilts had weakened in early trading after higher than expected German money supply figures hit German bond prices. But the 1.4 per cent May inflation figure gave the market a boost.

Most analysts in Dublin are revising their 1996 average inflation forecasts to around 1.7 per cent and that level of price growth is unlikely to concern even the hawks in the Central Bank. Five year gilts closed on a yield of 6.89 per cent while 10 year stock was on a yield of 7,168 per cent.