Profit alert at Spirent

The telecoms testing kit supplier Spirent warned that profits for the first three months of the year would be lower than expected yesterday as major customers in all parts of the world delayed spending.

Spirent, which makes equipment for testing ethernet and mobile networks, said first-quarter sales were $96.8m (£63.5m), down by $20.6m. It expects the second quarter to be in line with a year ago.