Beyond the Footsie: Thursday close

CIDER maker

Bulmer warned that it expects its second-half profits to fall short of those achieved last year, and said full-year results will be below market expectations.

The company now expects its pretax profit for the year to April to be £22m-£24m.

Hotels and banqueting group C.H.E Group also suffered, shedding 10% in value -- a fall of 2p to 18p -- after revealing discussions about a possible offer for the company, have now been terminated.

The firm, formerly known as Friendly Hotels, first revealed it was in offer talks on September 28, and had announced only on Wednesday that such talks were continuing.

At the close, the FTSE SmallCap index was 3.6 points lower at 2,457.5, having earlier reached a peak at 2,465.3.

Chipmaker ARC International fell 3p to 33p after its fourth-quarter results failed to impress. Though revenues rose 13% from the previous quarter, they fell 35% year-on year and were also 9% below estimates.

There was a bright smile on the face of Swallowfield investors as its gained 16p to 110 1/2p. The cosmetics group said it is experiencing a comparatively slow start to the new calendar year with current order books below last year's levels after it reported a 12.2% rise in full year pretax profit to £2.55m.

However, it believes that a number of new initiatives will begin to be reflected in the second quarter, and that its Autumn/Winter gift programme should exceed last year's volumes.

Furthermore, Swallowfield said it is seeking opportunities to expand through partnership or acquisition.

Elsewhere Imagination Technology found 5 1/2p gains to 42p after signing a letter of intent to develop a mobile multimedia platform with STMicroelectronics of France.

Computer services firm Diagonal advanced 8 to 89 1/2, after news of strong forward order books offset flat full-year results. The IT consulting group reported static pretax profits at £7.5m before goodwill for the year to November, with turnover almost flat at £82.2m, compared with £82.7m last year.

Chairman Mark Samuels said management and operational changes in the last quarter are already showing benefits, and both the company's divisions have strong order books.