Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The Index retains its lead over the FTSE 100, which was down 0.5 per cent to 6132. The TechMARK meanwhile, was down 1.4 per cent.

Stocks in America moved ahead although the weaker dollar will have eliminated most of that gain.

Amino Technologies was the sharpest faller after it announced issued a profits warning reducing its shares by over 30p.

Demand for and shipments of its MPEG-2 IPTV set-top boxes had exceeded expectations but industry-wide issues relating to the MPEG-4 technologies delayed the uptake of these products and, in turn, delayed Amino's ability to sell these new products during the latter part of the current financial year.

Consequently, its MPEG-4 product shipments to date have been restricted to ‘trial’ volumes and a pre-tax loss of £1.5m for the year is now to be expected.

The price recovered from trading below 50p to a price of 57p – still 27 per cent down on a week earlier.

Air Music & Media Group was the strongest performer with a 35 per cent rise after the chairman, Peter Cowgill, highlighted the significance of the Christmas trading period to the full year results.

Shares in Northgate Information Solutions fell back 15 per cent after it announced that it had ended the talks on a potential takeover of the company. The company reiterated its statement made at last month's annual meeting that trading is in line with expectations.