Molins goes up in smoke

NEW Zealand entrepreneur Sir Ron Brierley described tobacco machine maker

Molins

Yesterday, only two months since warning that full-year profits would be hit by the falling dollar, Molins was at it again. The shares closed 131 1/2p down, at a year's low of 211p, following chairman Peter Byrom's bearish agm comments.

He warned that underlying earnings per share in the first quarter will be about half of those for last year and profits will be heavily weighted towards the second half.

Prospects for this year within the tobacco machinery division have deteriorated over the last two months. Some orders have been cancelled and there have been no significant orders for new machinery from North American customers, who have been the main buyers over the past two years.

Jarvis, the struggling rails and schools contractor, succumbed to renewed nervous selling and reversed 10 1/2p to a year's low of 123 1/2p.

Finance director Robert Kendall recently departed abruptly following its second warning in as many months. Fears are growing that investors will have to sing for a dividend this year. Late rumours suggested that Jarvis will soon announce it has sold its stake in the Tube Lines Consortium, which is running part of the London Underground.

Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, 78 years young and still moving markets, often dubbed the second-most powerful man in America, spooked dealing rooms for the umpteenth time in his near 17-year reign. He said the US economy seems to have turned the corner and the threat of deflation has gone. US banks are therefore in shape to deal with rising interest rates.

A late overnight sell-off in New York on fears of a US rate rise left Wall Street 123 points easier on Tuesday and a further 64 points off early yesterday despite forecast-busting first quarter figures from Motorola.

London followed suit: the Footsie fell 41.8 points before closing 29.1 off at 4539.9.

Neil Mackinnon, chief economist at currency fund manager The ECU Group said: 'Greenspan's verbal tightening is paving the way for higher US rates. The Fed's meeting on June 30 could be the crunch day.'

Sterling fell sharply to $1.774, while the euro improved to 66.8p and $1.1860.

Vodafone softened 1/4p to 137p after analysts pooh-poohed a rumour that the mobile phone giant may bid for Vivendi to get its hands on French mobile network, SFR.

Premier Oil skidded 49p to 523 1/2p. Oriel Securities downgraded to hold from add after an inconclusive drilling result at the Sinapa-2 well off the coast of Guinea Bissau in West Africa.

A strong buy recommendation from Bell Lawrie White helped explorer Melrose Resources firm 4 1/2p to 238p.

European Diamonds sparkled at 97p, up 12 1/2p, following its acquisition of a mine in Finland.

Phil Edmonds' mineral explorer Southern African Resources improved 1 1/2p to 30 1/2p following good drilling results at its Leeuwkop platinum project, situated on the western limb of the Bushveld complex.

Bug buster Bioquell soared 31p to 191p. The Journal of Hospital Infection has published a paper declaring that the company's technology has been proved 'dramatically effective' in fighting the superbug MRSA.

Full-year losses of £955,000, down from £1.87m, and an upbeat statement lifted Zoo Digital 1 3/4p to 12p.

Security tagger Dmatek rose 3 1/2p to 86p after winning a three-year contract for tagging equipment, support and maintenance services in New South Wales, Australia.

Funeral director Dignity showed signs of life, closing 9p higher at 242 1/2p after a stock overhang was successfully placed in safe hands.

RESTYLED as a marketing and communications company, Aim-listed NWD Group improved 1/8p to 6 5/8p following chief executive Alan Page's upbeat comments with the full-year results. Recent acquisitions are performing well and trading profitably. The outlook is increasingly positive. Word is the group will make money in the current year and a pretax profit of about £500,000 could be on the cards.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in