Beyond the Footsie: Tuesday close
SMALLER company shares closed lower as weak earnings reports took a stranglehold. The FTSE SmallCap Index closed off 7.8 points at 2,521.3.
Convergent Communications announced an loss of £0.9m for the year to March, down from a profit of £3.2m last year, while revealing plans to move its listing to AIM.
Aerospace engineer Hampson Industries dropped 3 3/4p to 19 1/2p as it revealed a drop in full-year pretax profits to £4.93m from £5.82m last year. It has also cut its dividend to 0.5p from 2.0p.
The company said the events of September 11 severely affected the civil aerospace industry, and it saw no improvement in the market until 2004.
Vocalis, which deals in speech recognition products, lost 26% of its value - down 1 3/4p at 4 3/4p - as the profit-takers moved in after it revealed narrowing full-year losses. Pretax losses were £4.18m , reduced from a loss of £7.14m a year earlier, with strong demand in the call centre market.
Medical safety devices company NMT Group stayed off 0 1/2p to 2 3/4p after the company said it will defend itself against a US legal challenge from Retractable Technologies to patents on its safety syringe.
Drugs company Goldshield Group gained 65p at 412 1/2p after a sharp hike in profits was backed by a positive forecast. Pretax profit rose by more than a quarter to £15.9m, while turnover rose by more than 40% to £100.4m.
Northern Petroleum was lifted by news of an acquisition - up 1/4 at 3p. The company has signed an agreement with Repsol Investigaciones Petroliferas, Teredo Oil and LOCS Oil of Spain to buy a 45% share of the Ayoluengo oilfield for $112,500.
