Walker Crips feels chill with 8% dip

Walker Crips, the broking and wealth fund manager, today became the latest City firm to say its stockbroking arm's profits had fallen.

Although the group saw revenues rise by 10% in the past six months, its pre-tax profit dived by 8% to £830,000.

It blamed its broking and corporate finance arms for most of the decline as demand for smaller companies' shares continues to fall.

The news came a day after Altium Securities said it was likely to close its UK broking unit with the loss of around 30 jobs.

Walker Crips also admitted that it had an exposure to MF Global, which it said it did not expect to have a material impact on its full- year results.